Missing
by littlebitclever
Summary: "Percy backed away, still watching me, and then turned to his cabin and walked away. I leaned against a pillar of my cabin and watched him gently close the cabin door behind him. Little did I know, that would be the last I would see him. For a long time." Have you ever wondered what Annabeth did when Percy disappeared? Read to find out! Review and tell me what you think!
1. Chapter 1

The flames were fifteen feet high and burning a bright purple. I always loved the sing-alongs that the Apollo cabin lead. My smile was so big I could hardly sing.

I glanced over to where Percy was sitting with Tyson in his section of the amphitheater and almost laughed out loud. Tyson was bouncing up and down on the bench and swinging his arms around and clapping while Percy was trying to dodge them.

The shadows of the huge fire flickered on his face and he was grinning. I felt my heart skip a beat when I caught his gaze and his smile turned even bigger.

"Last song, campers!" I heard Chiron call out of the darkness. Everyone groaned, but I was waiting for the singing to be over. I wanted to be by Percy again.

We all gave a huge chorus to '_A Cyclops Forged my Sword_', and then Chiron waved his hand to extinguish the flames.

"Quickly to your cabins, campers! You don't want to be caught by the harpies."

I stood from my bench and walked towards Percy, telling my siblings that I would meet them at the cabin later. They all snickered and tried to hide their smiles behind their hands.

"Annabeth," Percy said, walking towards me. I saw Tyson lumber off to the Poseidon cabin by himself, looking over his shoulder at us. I allowed myself to be gathered in Percy's arms as we slowly walked toward my cabin.

I put my arm around his waist and looked up at him. His sea green eyes were shining and he was slightly blushing.

"Come on, Seaweed Brain," I said, squeezing his side. "Are you ever going to get used to touching me?"

He smiled. "So...designing any new buildings for Olympus?" he said, trying to change the subject. I punched him in the arm.

"Ow!" he said indignantly. "You know, maybe I won't get used to you touching me if you just keep punching me all the time, Wise Girl."

"Then stop saying stupid things." As punishment, I decided to bore him with the details of an Apollo statue that I would be designing, as well as the type of columns that would be surrounding a large plaza. As I rambled, he rolled his eyes.

"I'm excited to spend Winter Break with you," he interrupted.

I decided to drop Olympus. "Three weeks of just us," I sighed.

He stopped walking. We were already in front of the Athena cabin.

"Annabeth," he said again, and he let the back of his finger trace my cheek. He leaned down, his eyes slowly closing, and I put my arms on his shoulders just before he kissed me. His hands were cupping my chin and my arms slid slowly down his back. I could feel his heart beating, and it was pumping just as fast as mine was. Our lips slowly broke apart. His eyes opened and he was looking intently at me.

"I love you," he said simply. "Is that a stupid thing to say?"

"No," I said, and I leaned my head against his chest. We stood there in the silence for a few minutes. I pulled away.

"I don't want to get caught by the harpies," I said stupidly. He laughed and ran his fingers through my hair.

"I should get back to Tyson. He probably IMed my Dad, telling him about what we've been doing," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"I'll see you tomorrow," I said. He backed away, still looking at me, and then turned to his cabin and walked away. I leaned against a pillar of my cabin and watched him gently close his cabin door behind him. I turned and went inside my own.

When I entered, several kids jumped away from windows where they were spying on us and ran to their bunks, pretending they were there the whole time, but I didn't mind.

I walked slowly to my bed and sat down, my fingers touching my lips where he had kissed me goodnight.

I would never get tired of his kisses.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning I climbed out of bed and remembered that I was on cabin duty. I quickly made my bed and pulled on an orange camp shirt.

Malcolm, one of my cabinmates, saw me and snickered.

"So…how's you and Lover Boy?"

"Stuff it, Malcolm," I said loftily. Nothing could ruin my mood.

He just raised his eyebrows incredulously and went back to whatever he was doing.

I grabbed a clipboard from my bedside table and sheathed my knife on my belt. I hummed happily to myself as I left, ignoring the stares from my siblings.

I was practically skipping from cabin to cabin, checking off to see if they were clean. As I neared the Poseidon cabin, my heart was thundering in my chest. I calmed myself down and walked purposefully over to the shell-embedded cabin, stopping in front of the door.

Something didn't feel right.

From the inside of the cabin, there was a weird trumpeting noise mixed with sniffles. I pushed the door open. The cabin was a disaster.

Clothes were strewn across the floor, and Percy's Minotaur horn was lying forgotten on the ground next to a shattered fountain. One of the bed's mattresses was haphazardly leaning against the frame, pillows and sheets rumpled.

The trumpeting noise was coming from Tyson, who was crying his eye out, holding Percy's wristwatch/shield.

"T-Tyson?"

"Annabeth!" he sobbed, and flung himself on my shoulder, almost knocking me to the ground.

"What happened? Where's Percy?" I cried.

"Woke up! Percy gone! Cabin messy!" Tyson gulped, wiping his eye with is had.

"Percy? G-Gone?" I stammered.

"Gone!" Tyson howled.

What? Percy couldn't just be _gone_. We were going to leave for Winter Break in two days! He wouldn't just leave. I wouldn't believe it.

"No. Percy isn't gone. He couldn't be!"

"Gone!" Tyson nodded, nose running. "Can't smell him."

I ran out of the cabin, Tyson right behind me.

"Chiron!" I screamed, sprinting towards the Big House. Kids popped their heads out of the cabins, looking curious and horrified. Will Solace ran out of his cabin and tried to stop me.

"Whoa! Annabeth, what's the problem?"

"Get out of my way, Will."

I shoved him out of the way and slowed myself down to a stride. I was not going to cry in front of Mr. D.

I flung open the door to the Big House and walked into the parlor, accidentally interrupting Mr. D. and Chiron in the middle of a pinochle game.

Mr. D. glared at me.

"Annabeth, child, what is the matter?" Chiron asked, rising from his wheelchair. His tail was still in curlers, but I ignored it.

"Percy, he's gone. Tyson and I don't know where he is," I said, trying to clear my face of emotion.

"How dreadfully unfortunate," Mr. D. cut in before Chiron could say anything. "But, I was only thinking it was a matter of time before, ah, Pierre Johansen would go missing."

"Dionysus, kindly leave this matter to me," Chiron said.

Mr. D. glowered. "Where do you think you're going? We haven't finished our pinochle game!"

"I'm afraid it's going to have to wait," Chiron said kindly.

Mr. D. gave me a fiery purple glare, and then summoned a Diet Coke, grumbling to himself.

"Now, Annabeth, let's go find Grover. He has an empathy link with Percy, doesn't he? Perhaps he can find him."

**Woo, CHAPITRE DEUX! I always get super excited to share chapters (um, hehe, even though this is my first story on FanFic).**

**I'm just ecstatic about this story, so I want to post the first couple chapters to get it out there.**

**Let me know what you think and review review review!**

**EDIT: Special thanks to sinclair12 and PercabethAndZebrasFTW for pointing out my mistake about Mr. D. I had completely forgotten (_what kind of fan am I?_) that he wouldn't be there. But...I'm to lazy to change it. So pretend he wasn't there!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chiron, Tyson, and I found Grover in Juniper's clearing, kissing her passionately.

Tyson stopped, staring at Grover, mouth open.

Chiron cleared his throat awkwardly.

Grover and Juniper jumped apart. Grover was such a deep red that it looked like his horns were slightly pink. Juniper blushed a bright green and vanished in a _poof_ of green mist.

"Uh…" Grover said stupidly, busily smoothing down his goat fur.

Chiron cleared his throat again. "Ahem. Grover. We need you to use your empathy link with Percy. We're afraid he's gone missing."

Grover looked at me, unbelieving, and I nodded.

"Check, Goat Boy," Tyson sniffled.

Grover jumped, paling instantly. "_What? _Percy, missing?"

"Grover, please check," I pleaded.

Grover sat down on the grass, a look of concentration on his face. Several minutes passed in silence. I could have died from the anxiety.

Suddenly, Grover gasped and keeled over.

"I can't connect…it was just dark. Pushed me out…" he wheezed.

Extreme worry flickered across Chiron's face. Any hope that I had about the empathy link vanished instantly. Tyson flung himself on the ground, howling, in a new fit of tears.

"Grover, summon the campers. Send out search parties immediately," Chiron ordered. "Who knows how much danger Percy could be in right now."

**xXx**

We searched all day. Classes and activities were canceled. Iris-messages were sent to Mrs. Jackson and Paul Blofis to see if Percy was there.

He wasn't.

I had stopped crying. All I felt was a deep numbness inside of me. I tried to keep on a tough face, not letting anyone what I was feeling on the inside. We still had new demigods coming to camp, and I was now elected temporary leader. I couldn't afford to show any tormented emotion, no matter how painful it was.

I avoided Percy's cabin as much as I could. Tyson spent his time with Mrs. O'Leary in the arena and I could hear her mournful howls from across camp. People whispered and pointed behind my back. Famous Percy Jackson was missing and his girlfriend was still at camp. What could that suggest?

I put on my game face. Instead of sadness, I started to feel angry. Why did it have to happen now? Just before we were going to leave to be together for three weeks. We were supposed to leave _today_. I felt mad at Percy for leaving, even though I knew it probably wasn't his fault. He was gone against his own will.

I was determined to find him. If I didn't...well, I wouldn't let that happen.

**xXx**

Two days later of endless searching, I had an awful dream. I was standing on a large glass platform and a raging storm was whipping around me, causing the glass to crack. I watched three blurry figures running around the platform, battling raging monsters.

A flash of lightning. One figure got knocked onto his back, a shoe flying off his foot.

_Do you see this hero, demigod?_ A horrible female voice asked. _He holds what you seek. Get to the hero before it's too late, or you may never see _him_ again._

"What are you saying?" I screamed into the wind. "Did you take Percy?"

_Go to the hero. The crack in the south…go to the hero. Or you will never see _him_ again. _The voice echoed.

The lightning flashed again and I woke up in a cold sweat.

xXx

The next morning, while I was trying to figure out what my dream meant, Chiron came up to me.

"Annabeth, a satyr has reported three unclaimed demigods in the south. I want you to go get them."

My heart leapt unexpectedly.

"Where in the south?"

"In Arizona," Chiron said. "The Grand Canyon."

**Chapter Threeeee...**

**Sorry about the lameness of this chapter. I was having a brain fart and I was able to come up with this eventually, soo...**

**I'm not that great at "villain" dialogue, so I apologize for how stupid her dream is. Where's Rick Riordan when I need him?**

**Thank you for reading and please review. I want to know what you're thinking!**

**PS. I'll try to update a lot earlier this week because on THURSDAY I'm leaving on tour with my Choir at school (squee! so excited!), and I won't be able to update.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you everyone who left me a review! Although I know that there aren't that many, every review helps me out.**

**A small disclaimer: I used some dialogue from Rick Riordan's _the Lost Hero_ in this chapter. All characters belong to him. Dialogue from the book will be used in future chapters.**

**Please keep in mind that this is Annabeth's point of view of the whole situation, so dialogue from his book was necessary.  
**

Butch flicked the reigns casually and the pegasi lurched forward in the air. Sunlight gleamed off of his bald head and the rainbow tattoo on his arm looked like it was rippling. I sighed and leaned against the edge of the chariot, my hair whipping into my face. I brushed it into a ponytail, feeling irritated.

Apparently I made some sort of noise because Butch turned around and tried to give me a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, Annabeth. Just a few more hours."

I nodded.

Ever since my dream last night, I kept feeling like I was missing something. That there was a hidden meaning in my dream, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

I was practically positive that the boy in my dream was Percy, but I still had a small shred of doubt nagging at me.

I put my hand on my hip where my knife was sheathed, and then felt my Yankees cap in my back pocket. They always gave me reassurance.

"It's okay, Annabeth," I mumbled to myself. "Everything is fine. Percy is just a few hours away." Then I felt stupid for talking to myself.

If Butch heard me, he pretended not to notice.

The rest of the chariot ride passed in agonizing silence. Butch wasn't one to talk with, and even so, I didn't really want to talk at all anyway. I slid down to the chariot floor.

I ran the events of my dream in my head. Lightning, a storm, and a boy with a missing shoe.

The gods were always ones to give annoyingly obscure hints.

I suddenly felt the chariot dip forward. I leapt to my feet and stuck my head over the chariot, taking in my surroundings.

The Grand Canyon was huge. A natural crevice in the ground, stretching for miles.

"Where exactly do we need to go?" Butch asked from the front.

I glanced around and spotted an observation deck completely surrounded by unnatural clouds. A fork of lightning flashed ominously in the mass.

"That's where," I said, pointing.

Butch nodded.

"Remember," he pointed out. "We're here for the demigods. Percy is just a…plus."

"I know. Faster."

The chariot hit the ground with a jolt. I leapt off before it even stopped rolling, unsheathing my knife. Three demigods were staring at us with shock on their faces. I narrowed my eyes, taking in the surroundings.

The observation deck's floor was made completely of glass, and it was cracked in several places. Paper worksheets were strewn across the deck and fluttering in the wind. Several backpacks and jackets were heaped around the deck, apparently forgotten.

My eyes slid over to where the three demigods were standing.

The boy in the center was wearing a purple t-shirt and he had cropped blond hair. His eyes were an electric blue and they looked vaguely familiar. A scar traced the top of his upper lip, and he had a hidden look of confidence on his face.

The boy on his right was Latino, and he had an annoying look on his face. His eyes glinted and it looked like he was trying hard not to smirk. He kept fidgeting, like he was on five cups of coffee. His hands fluttered nervously around his pockets, pulling gears and bolts out of them.

The girl had dark skin and her hair was peppered with braids. She looked at me incredulously, her dark eyes narrowed. She was wearing an old snowboarding jacket, and she looked tough. I could tell that she had been through a lot.

"Where is he?" I demanded, pointing my knife at each of them. They all looked startled, and the Latino's smirk was wiped satisfyingly off his face.

"Where's who?" the blond boy asked.

My heart skipped a beat. He wasn't here. I frowned, distressed.

"What about Gleeson? Where's your protector, Gleeson Hedge?" I snapped. I felt annoyed at the three demigods, even though I knew I shouldn't. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, like all of us were at the beginning.

The Latino cleared his throat. "He got taken by some…tornado things."

"_Venti._ Storm spirits," the blond boy said.

The kid spoke Latin? I was confused. "You mean _anemoi thuellai_? That's the Greek term."

I started to feel uncomfortable around the guy in the purple t-shirt. He felt extremely different.

"Who are you, and what happened?"

**Thank you again for reading my story! I'm sorry I wasn't able to update like I said I would. Packing for tour was hectic and I just got back two days ago. (SO FUN!)**

**Getting my life back into check was stressful, but I've got it back on track! Chapters should be up a lot sooner now.**

**Don't forget to drop a review! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**I know I said this before, but this chapter is mostly dialogue from _the Lost Hero_.**

**All dialogue and characters belong to Rick Riordan.**

The blond kid started to explain what happened, but I couldn't concentrate. It was stupid of me to get my hopes up, and I knew that, but I couldn't help myself. I had just set myself up for disappointment.

My eyes threatened to tear up again, and I had already told myself I was done crying.

When the boy finished, I sighed angrily.

"No, no, no! She _told_ me he would be here. She told me if I came here, I'd find the answer!"

Why did the voice lie to me?

The small bubble of hope that formed in my chest while on the chariot burst painfully.

"Annabeth," Butch said, interrupting my thoughts. "Check it out."

Butch gestured to the blond kid. I looked down at his feet.

He was missing a shoe.

_What?_

"No, Butch! He can't be. I was tricked!"

I glared at the sky. "What do you want from me? What have you done with him?"

The skywalk shuddered dangerously. I wiped at my eyes angrily, now more mad at myself than before.

"Annabeth, we've got to get these guys to camp," I heard Butch tell me.

"Fine." I glared at the blond kid. Why did he look so familiar? And why did I feel uncomfortable around him? "We'll settle this later."

I ignored the surprised look on his face and stormed over to the chariot.

I was acting ridiculous, but I didn't care.

**xXx**

Finally, we were in the air.

I learned that the blond kid's name was Jason, the girl's Piper, and the fidgety one Leo.

The bad side, the Leo didn't know how to shut up.

"This is _so_ cool! Where are we going?" he practically shouted in my ear.

I grimaced. "A safe place. The _only_ safe place for kids like us. Camp Half-Blood."

Piper blanched. "Half-Blood? Is that some kind of bad joke?"

She looked extremely offended, and I finally understood why. She was part Native American. Before I could explain, Jason cut in.

"She means we're demigods. Half god, half mortal."

How did he know that? "You seem to know a lot, Jason. But, yes, demigods. My mom is Athena, goddess of wisdom. Butch here is the son of Iris, the rainbow goddess."

Leo held back a laugh, turning it into a hacking cough. "Your mom is a rainbow goddess?" he asked obnoxiously.

Butch flexed menacingly. "Got a problem with that?"

"No, no," Leo sniggered. "Rainbows. Very macho."

"Butch is our best equestrian," I said, my patience wearing thin. "He gets along great with pegasi."

"Rainbows, ponies," Leo muttered.

"I'm gonna toss you off this chariot," Butch said. I would help him.

Piper looked annoyed. "Demigods. You mean you think you're…you think we're—"

Lightening rocked the sky and the chariot wobbled dangerously.

"The left wheel's on fire!" Jason yelled.

I jumped and ran to the side of the chariot. Flames were licking the wheel and making their way up the side of the chariot.

I heard a roaring in my ears. I looked up and saw more _anemoi_ hurtling towards us.

Piper paled. "Why are they—"

"_Anemoi_ come in different shapes," I said hurriedly. "Sometimes human, sometimes stallions, depending on how chaotic they are." I glanced at Butch, who nodded. "Hold on. This is going to get rough."

Butch flicked the reigns and the pegasi shot forward. Time felt like it was slowing down, and suddenly we were over Camp.

I looked around and saw that the _anemoi_ were no where in sight. I let out a sigh of relief.

Too soon.

The chariot shuddered once, and then the wheels fell off.

We dropped through the sky like a stone.

**I'm really sorry that this chapter is so boring. Basically a rerun of _the Lost Hero_. **

**I promise after a couple more chapters they will actually get a lot more interesting. No more borrowed dialogue for a while.**

**Thank you to those who reviewed and added this story to their favorites! You have no idea how happy it makes me :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay, guys. I seriously owe you an apology right now. I am SO sorry that this is all stuff that Rick Riordan has already written, with just snippets of Annabeth's thoughts.**

**I honestly don't care if you skip this chapter, but I felt it was necessary to include things that Rick has written. This story IS about how Annabeth feels while Percy is gone, so...I had to use it.**

**Disclaimer: All dialogue and characters belong to Rick Riordan. **

I leapt towards the bronze controls and Butch tugged at the reigns, trying to keep us airborne.

Leo was screaming in my ear, and pegasus feathers were flying everywhere—including my face.

We plummeted towards the lake. A ridiculous idea popped in my head.

"The lake!" I yelled. "Aim for the lake!"

Butch angled the pegasi down, and suddenly we were submerged in freezing, murky water with a tremendous splash.

I looked around, counting the bodies of the surfacing demigods. All there.

I suddenly wished for Percy. He could have saved us in the water, and made sure that we would have better odds surviving the crash.

_Snap out of it, Annabeth. You've got to look for him yourself. He's not going to magically reappear._

I felt tugging under my arms, and naiads gently tossed me on shore. Campers surrounded us with towels and blasted us with hot air, jabbering questions at us.

"Are you okay?"

"Where's Percy?"

"Did you find him?"

"_What happened_?"

"Who are they?"

I ignored all the questions until I heard a resentful, "Annabeth!"

I turned and saw Will storm towards me, brandishing his bow angrily.

"I said you could _borrow_ the chariot, not destroy it!"

Crap. "Will, I'm sorry. I'll get it fixed, I promise."

He scowled at me, and then at the remains of the chariot floating in the water. He then realized that Leo, Piper, and Jason were still standing there awkwardly.

"These are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why haven't they been claimed already?"

"Claimed?" Leo chimed in.

I opened my mouth to explain, but Will interrupted.

"Any sign of Percy?"

My mouth snapped shut. "No."

I heard a murmur go through the crowd. Faces looked disappointed and worried.

Suddenly, Drew, the Aphrodite counselor, shoved her way to the front of the crowd. She flicked her hair behind her shoulder and patted it down before glaring at me.

"Well," she said haughtily, "I certainly hope they're worth the trouble." She narrowed her heavily mascara-ed eyes.

"Gee, thanks. What are we, your new pets?" Leo snorted.

I never really liked Drew. She toyed with boys and was always fixing her already perfect makeup, but I had given up arguing with her. Still, Leo had a good point.

"No kidding," Jason said. "How about some answers before you start judging us—like, what is this place, why are we here, how long do we have to stay?"

"Jason," I reassured him, "I promise we'll answer your questions. And Drew?"—I glared at her—"All demigods are worth saving. But I'll admit, the trip didn't accomplish what I'd hoped." I sighed inwardly.

"Hey," Piper cut in, "we didn't ask to be brought here."

Drew sniffed and smoothed out her shirt. "And nobody _wants_ you, hon. Does your hair always look like a dead badger?"

Piper almost lost it. She stepped forward, her hand raised, when I put a hand on her shoulder, pulling her back. "Piper, stop."

"We need to make our new arrivals feel welcome," I said, giving Drew a look. "We'll assign them each a guide; give them a tour of camp. Hopefully by the campfire tonight, they'll be claimed."

"Would somebody tell me what _claimed_ means?" Piper asked.

I always felt sorry for new demigods. Some of them didn't even make it, and they never understood what was going on. I always hated that feeling of helplessness.

Suddenly, red light flared in my eyes.

Leo was standing there, a bewildered look on his face.

"That is claiming," I said.

"What'd I do?" Leo yelped. He looked up. "Gah! Is my hair on fire?" He jumped and ran around, the symbol still following him.

Butch muttered something about the Hephaestus cabin curse.

"Butch, shut up. Leo, you've just been claimed—" I started.

"By a god," Jason interrupted. "That's the symbol of Vulcan, isn't it?"

Again with the Latin? What was with this guy?

"Jason…how did you know that?" I asked carefully. I studied him. He looked surprised that he even knew that. A confused look crossed his face, and it seriously reminded me of someone I knew, but I could not place my finger on it.

"I'm not sure."

"Vulcan?" Leo exclaimed. "I don't even LIKE _Star Trek_. What are you talking about?"

_Star Trek_. Jeez…

"Vulcan is the Roman name for Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths and fire," I told him.

"The god of _what_?Who?" Leo said, waving his hands in the air where his claiming used to be.

I needed Leo to get away from here. He was starting to annoy me. I turned to Will, hoping he would help me out.

"Will, would you take Leo, give him a tour? Introduce him to his bunkmates in Cabin Nine."

"Sure, Annabeth." Thank you!

"What's Cabin Nine?" Leo babbled, looking nervous. "I'm not a Vulcan!"

"Come on, Mr. Spock, I'll explain everything." Will put a hand on his shoulder and steered him away from the lake towards the cabins.

I looked back at Jason. I studied him, and he looked uncomfortable under my gaze. There was something extremely weird about this kid. He knew everything about the gods, but when questioned, he had no idea how he knew it.

Plus, I seriously couldn't get over how familiar he looked.

While looking him over, I suddenly saw a small part of a black mark on the inside of his wrist.

"Hold out your arm."

He looked confused, but held it out anyway.

There was a black tattoo with about a dozen straight lines running down his forearm, with the letters SPQR and an image of an eagle.

What the heck were they? "I've never seen marks like this…Where did you get them?"

**Second apology!**

**This chapter is super long because I just wanted to get all of the "already written" stuff out of the way.**

**Repeat of first apology!**

**Gah! I feel stupid posting already written content, but I seriously feel like it will help my story feel more legitimate.**

**I want to post my own stuff...wah...**

**I promise this _Lost Hero_ stuffs will end soon!**

**Don't forget to leave me a review :) I seriously love hearing what you guys have to say!**

**And thank you to everyone who added it to your favorites/subscription list!**

**Double the happiness! AAAHHH!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Special thanks to the reviews left by PercyplusAnnabeth and bookworm909 for reassuring me about tLH dialogue. I was more worried about the readers than myself, and they made me feel a whole lot better! :)**

**Dialogue and characters owned by Rick Riordan.**

Jason sighed angrily and shook his head. "I'm getting really tired of saying this, but I don't know."

I was getting tired of hearing it, too.

Those marks gave me an extremely uncomfortable feeling.

Seriously, this entire guy was giving me an uncomfortable feeling.

As I looked at his arm again, I realized that it wasn't a tattoo. It wasn't ink, it was scarred flesh.

"Those look burned into your skin," I gasped.

"They were," Jason said. Then he shuddered, touching his temples. "I mean…I think so. I don't remember."

I was getting extremely suspicious of Jason. No memory, purple t-shirt, _burned skin_, and his ridiculously familiar blue eyes. Also, his uncanny knowledge about the gods, but in Latin.

All of the eyes that were once on Jason switched to me. They stared at me, waiting for my decision.

"He needs to go straight to Chiron," I decided. Chiron would know what was going on. "Drew, would you…?"

"Abso_lutely_." She practically leapt toward him and shoved her arm through his. "This way, sweetie," she chattered. "I'll introduce you to our director. He's…an _interesting_ guy."

She turned and flashed her eyes at Piper, and then swept him away with the lingering smell of expensive perfume.

Piper looked like she could crush Drew's head in. She heaved a deep breath and then turned towards me.

"Who's Chiron?" she asked. "Is Jason in some kind of trouble?"

I didn't know how to answer her. He was a complete mystery.

I got the feeling that Piper and Jason had a relationship before, and I needed to find a way to break the bad news.

"Good question, Piper. Come on, I'll give you a tour. We need to talk."

**xXx**

I tried to sound enthusiastic while describing the camp to Piper. I really did. But after returning to the camp with no success with Percy, it was hard to sound cheerful.

Piper noticed something was wrong with me, but she didn't say anything. Her eyes were shining as she looked around the camp, and when we climbed to the top of a hill and looked at the view, her eyes lit up with excitement.

"The valley is protected from mortal eyes," I told her. "As you can see, the weather is controlled, too. Each cabin represents a Greek god—a place for that god's children to live."

I glanced at Piper. She stared at me.

"You're saying Mom was a goddess."

I nodded. "You're taking this awfully calmly." Way better than some of the other demigods who came to camp before. Talk about nervous breakdowns.

Piper didn't answer for a while. She stood there, her eyes furrowed in thought. She finally breathed in.

"I guess after this morning, it's a little easier to believe. So…who's my mom?"

"We should know soon," I reassured her. "You're what—fifteen? Gods are supposed to claim you when you're thirteen. That was the deal."

Gods, gods were horrible at keeping promises.

"The deal?"

"They made a promise last summer…long story…but they promised not to ignore their demigod children anymore, to claim them by the time they turn thirteen. You saw how fast Leo was claimed once he got here." The image of Leo running around and waving his arms with the flaming hammer above his head almost made me crack a smile. "Should happen for you soon. Tonight at the campfire, I bet we'll get a sign."

"Why thirteen?"

"The older you get, the more monsters notice you, try to kill you." Her eyes widened at that, but then I guess she realized what happened to her earlier today, and she relaxed. "'Round thirteen is usually when it starts. That's why we send protectors into the schools to find you guys, get you to camp before it's too late."

"Like Coach Hedge?"

I nodded. "He's—he was a satyr: half man, half goat. Satyrs work for the camp, finding demigods, protecting them, bringing them in when the time is right."

She didn't look surprised at all.

"What happened to him?" she asked. "When we went up into the clouds, did he…is he gone for good?"

"Hard to say." I felt worried. Storm spirits were deadly and extremely dangerous. "Storm spirits…difficult to battle. Even our best weapons, Celestial bronze, will pass right through them unless you can catch them by surprise."

"Jason's sword just turned them to dust," Piper recalled.

Again with Jason? _Who_ is this kid? "He was lucky, then. If you hit a monster just right, you can dissolve them, send their essence back to Tartarus."

"Tartarus?"

"A huge abyss in the Underworld, where the worst monsters come from…" As I went on to describe Tartarus, Piper's look got steadily more and more worried. She turned away from me and stared down at the cabins below. Her hands were trembling slightly.

I felt extremely sorry for her. I could completely relate to how she was feeling. Running from monsters since I was seven was horrible. And she'd only experienced it once today.

"It'll be okay," I promised her. "You have friends here. We've all been through a lot of weird stuff. We know what you're going through."

Doubt crossed her face. "I've been kicked out of five different schools the past five years. My dad's running out of places to put me."

"Only five?" I asked her. "Piper, we've all been labeled troublemakers. I ran away from home when I was seven."

"Seriously?"

"Oh, yeah. Most of us are diagnosed with attention deficit disorder or dyslexia, or both—"

"Leo's ADHD," Piper said.

"Right. It's because we're hardwired for battle. Restless, impulsive—we don't fit in with regular kids. You should hear how much trouble Percy—" I stopped abruptly. His name had slipped out of my mouth and a new wash of worry consumed me. I shook it off. "Anyway, demigods get a bad rep. How'd you get in trouble?"

"I steal stuff." She looked irritated. "Well, not really _steal…_"

"Is your family poor?" I asked.

Piper laughed bitterly. "Not even. I did it…I don't know why. For attention I guess. My dad never had time for me unless I got in trouble."

I understood. "I can relate. But you said you didn't really steal? What do you mean?"

"Well…nobody ever believes me. The police, teachers—even the people I took stuff from: they're so embarrassed, they'll deny what happened. But the truth is, I don't steal anything. I just ask people for things. And they give me stuff. Even a BMW convertible. I just asked. And the dealer said, 'Sure. Take it.' Later, he realized what he'd done, I guess. Then the police came after me."

She stopped, her look challenging me to disbelieve her.

I just nodded. "Interesting. If your _dad_ were the god, I'd say you're a child of Hermes, god of thieves. He can be pretty convincing. But your dad is mortal…" I trailed off.

"Very."

Piper was confusing. She was tough, but I could tell that emotionally exhausted. I also had the feeling that she was hiding something, but I didn't ask her about it.

I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. "I don't know, then. With luck, your mom will claim you tonight."

**I am definitely updating later today. I'm just having too much fun thinking like Annabeth!**

**Thank you to those who reviewed my fanfic. All of you! You are so nice and your opinions and comments really help my writing!**

**Another thanks to those who added this story to your favorites/subscriptions list. You are all wonderful!**

**Please leave a review on your way out. I want to know what you think!**

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	8. Chapter 8

**Whew! Second chapter in a day. Super fun to write. I had no idea how much fun of a character Annabeth could be :)**

Piper stared over the valley, and it seemed like she was avoiding my gaze. I knew something was up. I just felt like I shouldn't question her about it. I decided to drop it.

"Come on," I finally said. "There's something else I need to check."

I started walking a bit farther around the hill, Piper in my wake. I finally stopped at Rachel's cave. Although the outside of the cave looked pretty creepy, the inside totally rocked. Apollo wanted her to have a foreboding look, complete with torches and old bones and swords.

Piper looked surprised. "What's in there?"

I poked my head in and took in the plush carpets and gaming system. No one in sight. I sighed and turned back.

"Nothing, right now. A friend's place. I've been expecting her for a few days, but so far, nothing."

Piper raised her eyebrows and glanced at the embroidered curtains. "Your friend lives in a cave?" she asked incredulously.

A smile cracked my face. "Actually, her family has a luxury condo in Queens, and she goes to a finishing school in Connecticut. But, when she's here at camp, yeah, she lives in the cave. She's our oracle, tells the future. I was hoping she could help me—"

"Find Percy," Piper guessed.

That small phrase hit me hard. I wasn't mad at Piper. I wasn't mad at anything, but I was just _mad_. And sad. I felt all my composure slip away and I sat down hard on a rock, putting my head in my hands, tears threatening to spill over.

_Percy, where did you go? Why can't I find you? You found me…_

A small tear traced my cheek, and I wiped it away, irritated.

I thought of when Percy came with Thalia and the rest of the demigods on the quest to save me from Atlas. I knew I had started liking Percy the moment I saw him first come to Camp Half-Blood, but seeing him climb that hill, his sword drawn, anger on his face, made my really start to _like_ him. Soon into love.

_Okay, you're just making yourself miserable. You _will_ find him. You're not giving up._

Piper interrupted my thoughts.

"That's—a dragon," she stammered. "That's the _actual_ Golden Fleece?"

I looked up and nodded. Piper looked at me, and my shoulders dropped. I rubbed my face with my hands. "Sorry. A little tired." A lot more than tired. Exhausted.

"You look ready to drop," Piper said. "How long have you been looking for your boyfriend?"

"Three days, six hours, and about twelve minutes." I wouldn't let myself forget how long he was gone. It was starting to turn into a challenge. How fast can I find him?

"And you've got not idea what happened to him?"

I shook my head sadly. "We were so excited because we both started winter break early. We met up at camp on Tuesday, figured we had three weeks together. It was going to be great. After the campfire, he—he kissed me good night, went back into his cabin, and in the morning he was gone. We searched the whole camp. We contacted his mom. We've tried to reach him every way we know how. Nothing. He just disappeared." My voice threatened to shake.

"How long were you guys together?"

"Since August," I said. "August eighteenth." His birthday.

"Almost exactly when I met Jason," Piper recalled. "But we've only been together a few weeks."

Crap. Now it was time to break the news. I was regretting this moment ever since I realized something about Jason.

"Piper…about that. Maybe you should sit down…" I felt horrible.

Piper looked scared and panicked. "Look, I know Jason thought—he thought he just _appeared_ at our school today. But that's not true. I've known him for four months."

"Piper," I said sadly. "It's the Mist."

"Missed…what?"

I sighed. "M-i-s-t. It's a kind of veil sparating the mortal world from the magic world. Mortal minds—they can't process strange stuff like gods and monsters, so the Mist bends reality. It makes mortals see thing in a way they _can_ understand—like, their eyes might just skip over this valley completely, or they might look at that dragon and see a pile of cables."

Piper swallowed hard. "N-no. You said yourself I'm not a regular mortal. I'm a demigod."

"Even demigods can be affected. I've seen it lots of times. Monsters infiltrate some place like a school, pass themselves off as human, and everyone _thinks_ they remember that person. They believe he's always been around. The Mist can change memories, even create memories of things that never happened—"

Color in Piper's face drained. "But Jason's not a monster! He's a human guy, or demigod, or whatever you want to call him. My memories aren't fake. They're _so_ real. The time we set Coach Hedge's pants on fire. The time Jason and I watched a meteor shower on the dorm roof and I finally got the stupid guy to kiss me…"

Piper kept talking, describing everything that happened between her and Jason. How nothing could be fake.

I just felt horrible. I dreaded breaking the news to her, but she had to know. I couldn't let her live a false reality.

I frowned. "Piper, your memories are a lot sharper than most. I'll admit that, and I don't know why that is. But if you know him so well—"

"I do!" she practically shouted.

"Then where is he from?"

She staggered. "He must have told me, but—"

"Did you notice his tattoo before today? Did he ever tell you anything about his parents, or his friends, or his last school?"

I-I don't know, but—"

"Piper," I said gently. "What's his last name?"

Her face went blank. Her eyes suddenly filled up with tears and she started to cry. She sat down next to me and just cried.

I felt like crying, too. I knew what it was like to lose a boyfriend.

"Hey," I said. "We'll figure it out. Jason's here now. Who knows? Maybe it'll work out with you guys for real."

Piper moaned and wiped her face with her hand. "You brought me up here so no one would see me blubbering, huh?"

I nodded. "I figured it would be hard for you. I know what it's like to lose a boyfriend."

"But I still can't believe…I _know_ we had something. And now it's just gone, like he doesn't even recognize me. If he really did just show up today, then why? How'd he get there? Why can't he remember anything?"

I was thinking the exact same thing. "Good questions. Hopefully Chiron can figure that out. But for now, we need to get you settled. You ready to go back down?"

Piper turned away from me again and stared at the valley. I patted her on the back.

"Yeah. I'm ready."

**I would totally love to update again today, but I have lots of homework left over from being gone on choir tour. **

**Meh, responsibility...**

**Anyways, I hope to update again in the next day or so!**

**Thank you, my readers. You are fantabulous!**

**Please and carrots leave a review for me. I don't want to annoyingly grovel, but I love getting them!**

**BYE.**

**PS. Yeah, I was totally groveling.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Wow! 20+ reviews! (okay, 21, but I felt cool saying 20+)**

**I seriously thought this story would get, like, three! You guys are so awesome *blushes***

**You know the drill. Dialogue and characters belong to Rick Riordan!**

Piper stared around the central green. I had to admit, it was pretty impressive.

Piper stared at a group of kids playing basketball. All their shots sank in without touching the rim.

"Apollo's cabin," I told her. "Bunch of show-offs with missile weapons—arrows, basketballs."

She nodded, her mouth slightly open, and I steered her towards the fire pit, where two guys were slashing each other with swords.

"Real blades?" Piper asked. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"That's sort of the point," I said. I blinked. "Uh, sorry. Bad pun. That's my cabin over there. Number Six." I gestured towards it.

We walked by it, and Piper looked through the slightly open door. I glanced in, too.

It was a complete mess. Someone had left a SMART board flickering on and another and left sheets of blueprints strewn across a table. I didn't want her to see the mess.

"Uh, speaking of blades, come here."

I took her around to the side of the cabin to the weapon's shed. I pulled out a set of keys and unlocked the door. I motioned her inside.

"Every demigod needs a weapon," I said. "Hephaestus makes the best, but we have a pretty good selection, too. Athena's all about strategy—matching the right weapon the right person. Let's see…"

I looked around and picked up a sword.

Piper's arm almost fell off from the weight.

"No," we both said.

I wandered to the back of the shed and found a cool weapon. I handed it to her.

"A shotgun?" Piper asked.

"Mossberg 500." I checked the pump action to see if it was still working. "Don't worry. It doesn't hurt humans. It's modified to shoot Celestial bronze, so it only kills monsters.

"Um, I don't think that's my style," Piper said nervously.

"Mmm, yeah…too flashy." I placed it on top of a shield and started looking through a rack of crossbows.

"Hey, what's that?" Piper asked. "A knife?"

I turned around and my stomach dropped.

"Uh…I don't know Piper," I said uneasily. "I don't think you want this one. Swords are usually better."

"You use a knife," Piper pointed out.

"Yeah, but…" I gave up arguing. "Well, take a look if you want."

She pulled the knife out of the sheath and weighed it in her hand. She looked relaxed, and the knife looked perfect with her.

"It suits you," I admitted. "That kind of blade is called a parazonium. It was mostly ceremonial, carried by high-ranking officers in the Greek armies. It showed you were a person of power and wealth, but in a fight, it could protect you just fine."

"I like it," Piper said. "Why didn't you think it was right?"

I breathed out. "That blade has a long story. Most people would be afraid to claim it. Its first owner…well, things didn't turn out too well for her. Her name was Helen."

"Wait, you mean _the_ Helen? Helen of Troy?"

I nodded.

Her face paled, and she gingerly held the knife. "And it's just sitting in your toolshed?"

"We're surrounded by Ancient Greek stuff. This isn't a museum. Weapons like that—they're meant to be used. They're out heritage as demigods. That was a wedding present from Menelaus, Helen's first husband. She named the dagger Katoptris."

"Meaning?"

"Mirror," I said. "Looking glass. Probably because that's the only thing Helen used it for. I don't think it's ever seen battle."

Piper lifted the blade up and looked at her reflection.

Suddenly, her eyes widened and her face went pale. Her hands went slack and her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

She dropped the blade.

"Piper?" I knew that blade was bad news. I started to run outside. "Medic! I need some help over here!"

Piper came to. "No, it's—it's okay," she mumbled.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I just..." Her hands were trembling as she bent down to pick up the dagger. "I got overwhelmed. So much happening today. But...I want to keep the dagger, if that's okay."

I looked at her. After the first five seconds of holding the blade, she had almost collapsed.

I let the feeling go.

I turned to the Apollo kids, who had abandoned their game and were running towards us, and waved them off.

"Okay...if you're sure. You turned really pale, there. I thought you were having a seizure or something."

"I'm fine. Is there...um, a phone at camp? Can I call my dad?"

I looked at her again. "We aren't allowed phones," I said. "Most demigods, if they use a cell phone, it's like sending up a signal, letting the monsters know where you are. But...I've got one." I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it to her. "Kind of against the rules, but if it can be our secret..."

She took it from me and walked out of the shed, turning towards the ring of cabins.

While she was talking on the phone, I thought about what happened.

Something was strange about Piper. She wasn't strange like Jason, but something was definitely up. She always had a frightened look in her eyes, although she was trying really hard to hide it.

And when she looked into the dagger...

I always knew the blade was cursed, but—

Piper walked back to me, handing me the phone.

"No luck?" I asked.

Piper didn't answer and avoided my gaze.

I looked at my phone and then stared.

"Your last name is McLean?" I caught myself. "Sorry, it's not my business. But that sounds really familiar."

"Common name," Piper said shortly.

"Yeah, I guess. What does your dad do?"

"He's got a degree in the arts. He's a Cherokee artist," she said, almost automatically.

"Oh," I said. I could tell she wasn't telling the truth, but I dropped it. I'd been doing that a lot with her. "You feeling okay? Want to keep going?"

Piper busied herself with fastening the dagger to her belt. When she felt like she'd taken long enough, she looked up.

"Sure," she said. "I want to see everything."

**Whoopee-doo and la-dee-da! Chapter nine is now up!**

**I thought I might respond to some reviews :)**

**_Starkid Rocks:_ Thank you! I wish I was Rick Riordan...and I purposely wanted to make Annabeth the complete opposite of Bella, so I'm glad you saw that! PS. Your username rocks.  
**

**_softball4ever:_ I really don't know how long I plan to carry out the story. I still haven't decided if I want to create some Mark of Athena stuff. I'm thinking I'll stop it when Percy and Annabeth reunite. Let Rick do the adventure parts. Also, I think that tons of people have done their own take of MoA, so I don't want to be just another story like that.  
**

**_bookworm909: _Great ideas! I was thinking of what would happen after tLH stuff. It's kind of been writing itself right now, so your ideas are awesome. Thank you for your reviews! :)  
**

**Okay...I think that's enough A/N for one chapter.**

**Please leave me a review! I cherish every one!**

**PS. That sounded like something off of a Hallmark Christmas card...**


	10. Chapter 10

**Soo...**

**I seriously love updating. That's why it's been happening so much.**

**GAH! UPDATING! I LOVE IT!**

**Anywho, I'm trying to make it a goal to update AT LEAST twice a week. And so far, I have completely overachieved my goal!**

**Win.**

**Repeat of the repeats: Dialogue and characters belong to you-know-who. (Not Voldemort. The other guy)**

**Seriously, if you don't know who the other guy is, just look at the past five chapters or so. ****Man, you're slow.**

I guided her around the area between the cabins, pointing out all of the different ones.

As we passed by Cabin Eight, Piper stopped.

"Artemis?" she asked.

I was a bit surprised.

"You know Greek mythology," I said, more as a statement.

Piper nodded. "I did some reading when my dad was working on a project last year."

Wait…

"I thought he did Cherokee art," I pointed out.

Piper looked stunned. "Oh, right. But—you know, he does other stuff too."

McLean, Greek mythology…why did that sound familiar?

I pretended not to notice.

"Anyway," I continued, "Artemis is goddess of the moon, goddess of hunting. But no campers. Artemis was an eternal maiden, so she doesn't have any kids."

"Oh." Piper looked a bit sad.

"Well, there _are_ the Hunters of Artemis," I said. "They visit sometimes. They're not the children of Artemis, but they're her handmaidens—this band of immortal teenage girls who adventure together and hunt monsters and stuff."

Piper looked curious. "That sounds cool. They get to be immortal?"

"Unless they die in combat, or break their vows. Did I mention they have to swear off boys? No dating—ever. For eternity."

"Oh, never mind," Piper said quickly.

I laughed. I remembered the time I was actually considering becoming a Huntress. That was before I realized that I _liked_ Percy…when he saved me.

I shook off the thought.

We passed cabin Number Ten.

"Gah, is that where supermodels go to die?" Piper gagged.

I cracked a smile. "Aphrodite's cabin. Goddess of love. Drew is the head counselor."

"Figures," Piper grumbled.

"They're not all bad," I said, remembering Selina. "The last head counselor we had was great."

"What happened to her?" Piper asked.

I frowned. "We should keep moving."

I showed her the rest of the cabins, thinking about which cabin she would belong in.

Piper was a complete mystery to me. She was so difficult to read, but then she seemed really open other times. But then she snapped shut when someone got close to her.

I decided to change the subject.

"We started with the twelve Olympian gods," I said, taking my mind off of things. "Male gods on the left, female on the right. Then last year, we added a whole bunch of new cabins for the other gods who didn't have thrones on Olympus—Hecate, Hades, Iris—"

"What are the two big ones on the end?" Piper asked.

I scowled at the cabins. "Zeus and Hera. King and queen of the gods."

Piper strode towards them and I followed cautiously in her wake.

"Are they empty?" Piper asked.

I nodded. "Zeus went a long time without having any children. Well, mostly. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, the eldest brothers among the gods—they're called the Big Three. Their kids are really powerful, really dangerous. For the last seventy years or so, they tried to avoid having demigod children."

"_Tried_ to avoid it?"

"Sometimes they…um, cheated. I've got a friend, Thalia Grace, who's the daughter of Zeus. But she gave up camp life and became a Hunter of Artemis. My boyfriend, Percy, he's a son of Poseidon. And there's a kid who shows up sometimes, Nico—son of Hades. Except for them there are no demigod children of the Big Three gods. At least, not that we know of."

"And Hera?" Piper asked, glancing at her cabin, an uneasy look crossing her face.

"Goddess of marriage," I said, thinking ahead to choose my words carefully. "She doesn't have kids with anyone but Zeus. So, yeah, no demigods. The cabin's just honorary."

"You don't like her," Piper noticed.

"We…have a long history," I said cautiously. "I thought we'd made peace, but when Percy disappeared…I got this weird dream vision from her."

"Telling you to come get us," Piper said. "But you thought Percy would be there."

I sighed. "It's probably better I don't talk about it. I've got nothing good to say about Hera right now"

Piper looked at the cabin again, studying the doors. "So who goes in here?"

"No one. The cabin is just honorary, like I said. No one goes in."

"Someone does." Piper pointed at a footprint on the dusty threshold. She reached forward and pushed the doors open.

My heart leapt and I stepped back. A horrible, cold feeling washed over me. "Um, Piper, I don't think we should—"

"We're supposed to do dangerous stuff, right?" And Piper strode inside.

**Two chapters today! Just like yesterday!**

**I think one of the reasons why I'm updating so much (besides me just loving it) is because it freaking bothers me when authors don't update all the time! **

**ESPECIALLY when they leave it on a cliffhanger.**

**ESPE. CIAL. LY.**

**So, I'm trying hard not to do that. Hence the updating goal that I have.**

**And I just love it.**

**I know this chapter is a lot shorter than the past four, but I still have homework.**

**mehhomework.**

**OKAY BYE.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hiya! **

**Chapter 11! **

**This chapter was so fun to write! GAH.**

**A dis-to the-claimer: All talking bits and people in the story belong to the Double R, yo.**

When I walked into the cabin, an extremely bitter cold washed over me.

Something was terribly wrong with this cabin.

I think I got a bit light-headed. My dream flickered in my mind's eye, and I _knew_ that this cabin and my dream were connected somehow.

I mean, I knew that Hera sent me the dream, but something _strong_ was here.

Percy was connected to this cabin.

I heard chanting and I looked around. I suddenly saw a black figure behind the statue of Hera.

"Rachel?" I gasped.

She turned and dropped her shawl, revealing her curly red hair.

"Hey!" She ran towards me, almost tackling me in a hug. The statue of Hera seemed to stare disapprovingly. "I'm so sorry! I came as fast as I could!"

"It's okay…um, Rachel? Have you heard anything about Percy?"

"I haven't. I've been searching the oracle's spirit, trying to see if she'll give me any hints, but nothing yet."

I sighed.

I remembered Piper. "I'm being rude," I apologized. "Rachel, this is Piper, one of the half-bloods we rescued today. Piper, this is Rachel Elizabeth Dare, our oracle."

"The friend who lives in the cave," Piper said.

Rachel grinned. "That's me."

"So you're the oracle?" Piper asked. "You can tell the future?"

"More like the future mugs me from time to time," Rachel said. "I speak prophecies. The oracle's spirit kind of hijacks me every once in a while and speaks important stuff that doesn't make any sense to anybody. But yeah, the prophecies tell the future."

Piper looked uncomfortable. "Oh. That's cool."

Rachel laughed. "Don't worry. Everybody finds it a little creepy. Even me. But usually I'm harmless."

"You're a demigod?" Piper asked.

"Nope, just mortal."

"Then what are you…" Piper waved her hand around the room.

I'd been thinking the same thing.

Rachel frowned and looked at me. "Just a hunch. Something about this cabin and Percy's disappearance. They're connected somehow. I've learned to follow my hunches, especially the last month, since the gods went silent."

"Went silent?" Piper asked.

Rachel frowned at me. "You haven't told her yet?"

"I was getting to that," I said. "Piper, for the last month…well, it's normal for the gods not to talk to their children very much, but usually we can count on some messages now and then. Some of us can even visit Olympus. I spent practically all semester at the Empire State Building."

"Excuse me?"

"The entrance to Mount Olympus these days."

"Oh," Piper said. "Sure, why not?"

"Annabeth was redesigning Olympus after it was damaged in the Titan War," Rachel explained. "She's an amazing architect. You should see the salad bar—"

"_Anyway_," I cut in, "starting about a month ago, Olympus fell silent. The entrance closed, and no one could get in. Nobody knows why. It's like the gods have sealed themselves off. Even my mom won't answer my prayers, and our camp director, Dionysus, was recalled."

**A/N: Sorry, I hate it when I have to interrupt, but yes, I realize that in Chapter 2 Mr. D is there. That was my fault, I forgot about all that silent gods stuff. Now I'm back on track, and he is not here. He never was!**

**You may resume.**

"Your camp director was the god of…wine?"

"Yeah, it's a—"

"Long story," Piper guessed. Right. Go on."

"That's it, really," I said. "Demigods still get claimed, but nothing else. No messages. No visits. No sign the gods are even listening. It's like something has happened—something _really_ bad. Then Percy disappeared."

"And Jason showed up on our field trip," Piper supplied. "With no memory."

"Who's Jason?" Rachel asked.

"My boy—my friend," Piper said, almost bitterly. "But Annabeth, you said Hera sent you a dream vision."

"Right. The first communication from a god in a month, and it's Hera, the least helpful goddess, and she contacts me, her least favorite demigod. She tells me I'll find out what happened to Percy if I go to the Grand Canyon skywalk and look for a guy with one shoe. Instead, I find you guys, and the guy with one shoe is Jason. It doesn't make sense."

"Something bad is happening," Rachel said, nodding.

Piper suddenly looked nervous. "Guys, I—I need to—"

All of a sudden, Rachel's body stiffened. Her eyes began to glow with a green light.

Crap.

She grabbed Piper by the shoulders and she started to shake her. Piper's face turned to complete shock, and she tried to wriggle away.

_Free me, _she rasped, her voice harsh and not her own. _Free me, Piper McLean, or the earth shall swallow us. It must be by the solstice._

I jumped forward, shoving my arms between Rachel's, trying to break her hold, but Rachel was holding fast.

Suddenly, Piper went slack in Rachel's grasp. Her face was sheet-white, and her eyes slowly rolled into the back of her head. Her mouth gaped open and Rachel released her.

Piper collapsed to the marble ground with a thud.

**Oooh! Chills!**

**Anyway, I won't be able to add another chapter today like I have been the past couple of days.**

**So, you get to handle a small-ish cliffhanger!**

**(Although, you kinda know what happens next)**

**I will (hopefully) update tomorrow.**

**Hopefully. Most likely.**

**We'll see!**

**I think that's enough A/N and parenthesis for one day.**

**Please send me a review! They're like candy to me!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Yay! I was able to post today :) I'll just let you get to the story now.**

**Ze deealogue belahngs to ze Riordan ov ze Rick. Ahnd the charractairs.**

"Rachel!" I screamed.

Rachel turned to face me, her eyes still glowing.

She started to advance, and I withdrew my knife, pointing it at her.

Suddenly, a shudder ran through her body and her eyes flickered.

"A-Annabeth?" she muttered, and swayed on the spot.

I dropped my knife and ran forward, catching her just in time.

The mist slowly disappeared from her eyes. "What…what happened?"

"Oh gods. Piper!" I yelled.

Rachel sat up. "What?"

I ran over to Piper and dropped to my knees, placing my hand at her neck.

"I…I don't feel a pulse," I whispered.

"_What_?"

"Rachel, I'm so sorry. You were taken over, and you grabbed Piper. You—" I shuddered. "—You spoke in a different voice. Piper just collapsed in your hands. And then you turned toward me…" I choked off.

"No pulse?" Rachel whispered. Then she ran forward and put her head on Piper's chest, trying to hear a heartbeat.

"Nothing…" Rachel said, and started to cry.

"Rachel, I don't think it's your fault. You spoke in a _different_ voice. It wasn't you or the oracle. It was something else."

Rachel gulped and nodded.

"Come on, we've got to get her to Chiron," I said, and lifted Piper's limp body up. I put her arm around my shoulder and Rachel did the same, still slightly crying, and we carried Piper out of the cabin and started to run.

I knew I didn't like Hera.

**xXx**

Rachel and I burst into the farm house, and I realized that I had interrupted a conversation between Chiron and Jason.

They both turned and stared, and then Jason stood up, shock on his face.

"What happened?" Jason shouted, and he ran over to me and Rachel, putting a hand on Piper's head.

"Hera's cabin," I gasped. "Vision. Bad."

Rachel looked up, her tear streaks glistening. "I think…" she stammered, "I think I may have killed her."

"_What? No!_" Jason yelled. He put his hand in front her nose. "She's breathing!"

Rachel and I sighed in relief.

Jason took Piper from us and put her on the couch, while I ran down the hall to get the medical kit. I burst into Chiron's office and dove to his desk, grabbing the kit from the drawer.

Something caught my eye.

With the medical kit in my hand, I staggered over to Chiron's billboard.

Right there, in the bottom corner, was me.

And Percy.

"Percy…" I murmured, and I put my hand on the picture, my finger trailing on his face. His arm was casually around my shoulders, my hand on his waist. His other hand was holding a small blue cupcake.

His birthday, just after our kiss.

That picture seemed like centuries ago.

I snapped back into reality, aware of the weight of the kit in my hand.

"Piper," I said, shaking my head to clear my thoughts.

I turned to leave the room, glancing back at the picture.

My heart hurt.

I ran back down the hallway, away from Chiron's office.

I pretended nothing happened as I kneeled next to Piper.

"Chiron, what happened back there—I've never seen anything like it. I've heard Rachel's prophecy voice. This was different. She sounded like an older woman. She grabbed Piper's shoulders and told her—"

"To free her from a prison?" Jason interrupted.

I stared at him. "How did you know that?"

I saw Chiron do the three-fingered gesture over his heart.

"Jason, tell them. Annabeth, the medicine bag, please."

I looked at Jason.

"While I was talking to Chiron, time suddenly froze. Mist came out of Seymour's mouth, and it formed into the shape of a woman. She said my name, and then told me that I had to free her from prison. Then she said that she brought me here to camp. She said that she took my memories away, and that I belonged to her, that she was my patron. I had to free her in four days, or else I wouldn't get my memories back. And then she vanished."

I stared at him again.

"So does this happen often?" he asked. "Supernatural phone calls from convicts demanding you bust them out of jail?"

"Your patron," I said. "Not your godly parent?"

"No, she said _patron_. She also said my dad had given her my life."

I frowned. "I've never of heard anything like that before. You said the storm spirit on the skywalk—he claimed to be working for some mistress who was giving him orders, right? Could it be this woman you saw, messing with your mind?"

"I don't think so. If she were my enemy, why would she be asking for my help? She's imprisoned. She's worried about some enemy getting more powerful. Something about a king rising on the solstice—"

My heart jumped.

"Not Kronos. Please tell me it's not that," I said, looking at Chiron.

An image of Luke formed in my mind, and I shoved it out angrily.

Chiron stared at Piper's wrist where he was checking her pulse for a long time before he answered.

"It's not Kronos. That threat has ended. But…"

"But what?" I pressed.

Chiron closed the medicine bag. "Piper needs rest. We should discuss this later."

"Or now," Jason said. Thank you. "Sir, Mr. Chiron, you told me the greatest threat was coming. The last chapter. You can't possibly mean something worse than an army of Titan's, right?"

Rachel gasped. "Oh," she said in a small voice. "Oh, dear. The woman was Hera. Of course. Her cabin, her voice. She showed herself to Jason at the same moment."

"Hera?" I snarled. "_She_ took you over? She did this to Piper?"

"I think Rachel's right," Jason said. "The woman did seem like a goddess. And she wore this—this goatskin cloak. That's a symbol of Juno, isn't it?"

"It is?" I scowled. "I've never heard of that."

Chiron nodded, his face worried and reluctant. "Of Juno, Hera's Roman aspect, in her most warlike state. The goatskin cloak was a symbol of the Roman soldier."

"So Hera is imprisoned?" Rachel asked. "Who could do that to the queen of the gods?"

**Cue the dramatic music, please.**

**Twelve chapters, guys! _Twelve_.**

**Okay, I know it's not that much. I've seen stories with fifty, but I just can't believe this story has gone so far.**

**You know, I never really realized that all of this stuff happened in just one day.**

**That's a freaking long day.**

**Anyway, thanks for staying aboard!**

**Also, thank you for the feedback and the positive reviews I've gotten. Ya'll are so nice :)**

**If you want, you could review! I couldn't make you or anything, but...I'd like it if you did.**

**No one said I couldn't guilt you into it. :)**

**Ooh! I gotta give credit to something. I got the inspiration for the picture in the office from this lovely artist, burdge-bug on DeviantArt. If you want, czech out the picture she drew. It's called Chiron's Office.**

**That is all.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Sorry I didn't update yesterday. Explanation in the down below**.

**Characters and dialogue belongeth to the Lord Rick Riordan. **

**All hail.**

Why did it have to be Hera? Why?

Sometimes I think she planned all of these things out just to get me mad.

I crossed my arms. "Well, whoever they are, maybe we should thank them. If they can shut up Hera—"

"Annabeth," Chiron interrupted, "she is still one of the Olympians. In many ways, she is the glue that holds the gods' family together. If she truly has been imprisoned and is in danger of destruction, this could shake the foundations of the world. It could unravel the stability of Olympus, which is never great even in the best of times. And if Hera has asked Jason for help—"

"Fine," I grumbled. "Well, we know Titans can capture a god, right? Atlas captured Artemis a few years ago." Same with me. "And in the old stories, the gods captured each other all the time. But something worse than a Titan...?" I trailed off, not really wanting to hear the answer.

Jason glanced at Seymour. "Hera said she'd been trying to break through her prison bonds for a month."

"Which is how long Olympus has been closed," I said. "So the gods must know something bad is going on."

"But why use her energy to send me here?" Jason asked. "She wiped my memory, plopped me into the Wilderness School field trip, and sent you a dream vision to come pick me up. Why am I so important? Why not just send up an emergency flare to the other gods-let them know where she is so they bust her out?"

"The gods need heroes to do their wil down here on earth," Rachel said. "That's right, isn't it? Their fates are always intertwined with demigods."

"That's true," I said, "but Jason's got a point. Why him? Why take his memory?"

"And Piper's involved somehow," Rachel said. "Hera sent her the same message—_Free me_. And, Annabeth, this must have something to do with Percy's disappearing."

I frowned. Why Jason? And the same with Percy? Where did he go? And why _Hera_ out of all the gods?

I noticed that someone had been quiet for a long time. I looked at him.

"Why are you so quiet, Chiron? What is it that we're facing?"

Chiron looked sadly at me. "My dear, in this, I cannot help you. I am so sorry."

What? He's always been there, always had the answer. He couldn't just back out now, couldn't stop helping at a time like this. Especially with Percy gone!

"You've never...you've _never_ kept information from me. Even the last great prophecy-"

"I will be in my office," he interrupted, his voice heavy. "I need some time to think before dinner. Rachel, will you watch the girl? Call Argus to bring her to the infirmary, if you'd like. And Annabeth, you should speak with Jason. Tell him about—about the Greek and Roman gods."

"But..."

Chiron turned his wheelchair away from me and rolled down the hallway. I turned angry. He would back out just at the exact wrong moment. I glared at his office door that he had just closed and muttered a curse in Greek.

Jason looked apologetic. "I'm sorry. I think my being here—I don't know. I've messed things up coming to the camp, somehow. Chiron said he'd sworn an oath and couldn't talk about it."

"What oath?" I demanded. "I've never seen him act this way. And why would he tell me to talk to you about the gods..."

I trailed off, and I saw Jason's sword lying on the coffee table. I touched the blade gingerly, expecting it to burn me. I didn't like the look of it at all.

"Is this gold? Do you remember where you got it?"

"No," Jason said. "Like I said, I don't remember anything."

I nodded, thinking fast. "If Chiron won't help, we'll need to figure things out ourselves. Which means...Cabin Fifteen. Rachel, you'll keep an eye on Piper?"

"Sure," Rachel promised. "Good luck, you two."

"Hold on," Jason said. "What's Cabin Fifteen?"

I walked over to the door. "Maybe a way to get your memory back."

**xXx**

I lead him to Hypnos' cabin. As I swung open the door, Jason stopped me.

"You think this is my parent's cabin?" he asked.

"No," I said. "This is the cabin for Hypnos, the god of sleep."

"Then why—"

"You've forgotten everything," I cut in. "If there's any god who can help us figure out memory loss, it's Hypnos." And I strode inside.

Jason walked in behind me and the minute he stepped through the door, his eyes started to droop. I saw his knees start to collapse.

"Snap out of it," I said, nudging him.

Jason looked startled and looked around.

"Cabin Fifteen does that to everyone," I warned him. "If you ask me, this place is even more dangerous than the Ares cabin. At least with Ares, you can learn where the land mines are."

"Land mines?"

Not wanting to explain, I walked over to the nearest sleeping kid and shook him. Hard. "Clovis! Wake up!"

He didn't budge. I got annoyed. "Clovis!" I shook his shoulder harder, but realizing it wasn't doing anything, I hit his forehead about six times.

"Wh-wh-what?" Clovis complained. He sat up, blinking at us blearily, and yawned hugely. Jason and I did, too. I snapped my mouth shut.

"Stop that!" I said. "We need your help."

"I was sleeping," he whined.

"You're _always_ sleeping."

"Good night."

Before he could pass out again, I grabbed his pillow and chucked it behind me.

"That's not fair," Clovis complained weakly. "Give it back."

"First help. Then sleep."

He sighed. "Fine. What?"

I started to explain what happened to Jason, but Clovis kept dozing off. I had to keep snapping my fingers under his nose to keep him awake.

Man, this kid annoyed me.

When I finished, Clovis actually stood up and stretched. He must have been excited.

"So you don't remember anything, huh?" he asked Jason.

"Just impressions," Jason said. "Feelings, like..."

"Yes?" Clovis pressed.

"Like I know I shouldn't be here. At this camp. I'm in danger."

"Hmm. Close your eyes."

Jason looked at me, and I nodded reassuringly. He closed his eyes.

He swayed on the spot, and I caught him and dragged him to a chair by the fire. Clovis' eyes were also closed, but I knew he wasn't sleeping. Miraculously.

I sat there in the silence, watching the branch drip the River Lethe.

I saw a shimmer out of the corner of my eye.

I turned, and Jason was transparent. He was almost completely gone.

"Jason!"

I leapt forward and tried to shake him awake. My hands passed right through him. I almost fell back, staring at my hands. I was stunned.

_Snap out of it!_

"Clovis!" I grabbed his shoulders. Thankfully, he was solid. "Clovis, come back! Jason!"

"Gah! What?" he yelped, opening his eyes.

"Jason!" I repeated.

He glanced at Jason.

"Oh, gods!" He closed his eyes again, and I slowly saw Jason become more and more solid. I gingerly put my hand on his shoulder. It didn't pass through. I sighed.

"Oh, gods…" I groaned.

Clovis nodded and we knelt by Jason.

"This is serious, all right," Clovis said.

Jason's eyes suddenly snapped open. He looked bewildered.

"What happened? How long—"

"Just a few minutes," I said, trying to sound calm. "But it was tense. You almost dissolved."

He stared at me, but my expression remained the same.

"Usually," Clovis said, "memories are lost for a good reason. They sink under the surface like dreams, and with a good sleep, I can bring them back. But this…"

"Lethe?" I asked.

"No," Clovis said. "Not even Lethe."

"Lethe?" Jason asked.

Clovis pointed to the Lethe branch dripping above the fireplace. "The River Lethe in the Underworld. It dissolves your memories, wipes your mind clean permanently. That's the branch of a poplar tree from the Underworld, dipped into the Lethe. It's the symbol of my father, Hypnos. Lethe is not a place you want to go swimming."

Annabeth nodded. "Percy went there once. He told me it was powerful enough to wipe the mind of a Titan."

For some reason, Jason looked relieved. "But…that's not my problem?"

"No," Clovis agreed. "Your mind wasn't wiped, and your memories weren't buried. They've been stolen."

**A long chapter for you guys because ya'll deserve it.**

**And I just didn't update yesterday. I will be updating again today :)**

**I didn't update yesterday like I was planning because my friend from Minnesota came over to my house yesterday!**

**No offense, but I wanted to hang out with her more than write a story for you. Sorry, truth hurts.**

**:) LOL JK GUYS. I LUV YA!**

**But still.**

**Anyway, I will be putting up a new chapter today. I just have to write it, first...**

**I better get started on that.**

**PS. Happy Cinco de Mayo! (did I spell that right? I'm in French, not Spanish...) Bring out the pinata and burritos!**

**Ole!**

**EDIT: Sorry to you who got the email saying I updated, and then it wasn't there. I posted it and was reading through.**

**Egad, there were a lot of grammar mistakes, so I took it down. Hopefully, I got them all!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Okay...I lied. I didn't update again yesterday like I said I would.**

**Psych!**

**Anyway, because I didn't, here's an extra _extra_ long chapter.**

**The disclaimer remains as it always was, no matter how much I want to change it.**

The fire crackled. Drops of Lethe water plinked into the tin cups on the mantel. One of the other Hypnos campers muttered in his sleep—something about a duck.

We were quiet for a long time.

Jason broke the silence. "Stolen." He sounded disbelieving. "How?"

"A god," Clovis said. "Only a god would have that kind of power."

"We know that," Jason said. "It was Juno. But how did she do it, and why?"

Clovis scratched his neck. "Juno?"

"He means Hera," I said. "For some reason, Jason likes the Roman names."

"Hmm," Clovis murmured.

"What?" Jason asked. "Does that mean something?"

"Hmm," Clovis said again, and Jason and I realized he was snoring.

"Clovis!" Jason yelled impatiently.

"What? What?" His eyes fluttered open. "We were talking about pillows, right? No, gods. I remember. Greek and Roman. Sure, could be important."

"But they're the same gods," I said. "Just different names."

"Not exactly," said Clovis.

I stared at him, and Jason leaned forward in his chair. "What do you mean, not exactly?"

"Well…" Clovis yawned. "Some gods are only Roman. Like Janus, or Pompona. But even the major Greek gods—it's not just their names that changed when the moved to Rome. Their appearances changed. Their attributes changed. They even had slightly different personalities."

"But…" I faltered. "Okay, so maybe people saw them differently through the centuries. That doesn't change who they are."

"Sure it does." Clovis started to nod off, and Jason snapped his fingers under his nose.

"Coming, Mother!" he yelped. "I mean…Yeah, I'm awake. So, um, personalities. The gods change to reflect their host cultures. You know that, Annabeth. I mean, these days, Zeus likes tailored suits, reality television, and that Chinese food place on East Twenty-eight Street, right? It was the same in Roman times, and the gods were Roman almost as long as they were Greek. It was a big empire, lasted for centuries. So of course their Roman aspects are still a big part of their character."

I think that was the longest I've ever heard Clovis talk without falling asleep.

"Makes sense," Jason said.

I shook my head, mystified. "But how do you know all this, Clovis?"

"Oh, I spend a lot of time dreaming. I see the gods there all the time—always shifting forms. Dreams are fluid, you know. You can be in different places at once, always changing identities. It's a lot like being a god, actually. Like recently, I dreamed I was watching a Michael Jackson concert, and then I was onstage _with_ Michael Jackson, and we were singing this duet, and I could _not_ remember the words for 'The Girl Is Mine'. Oh, man, it was so embarrassing, I—"

"Clovis," I interrupted. "Back to Rome?"

"Right, Rome," Clovis said. "So we call the gods by their Greek names because that's their original form. But saying their Roman aspects are exactly the same—that's not true. In Rome, they became more warlike. They didn't mingle with mortals as much. They were harsher, more powerful—the gods of an empire."

"Like the dark side of the gods?" I asked.

"Not exactly," he said. "They stood for discipline, honor, strength—"

"Good things, then," Jason said. "I mean, discipline is important, right? That's what made Rome last so long."

Clovis and I both gave him curious looks. Jason had almost a proud look on his face.

"That's true," Clovis said. "But the Roman gods weren't very friendly. For instance, my dad, Hypnos…he didn't do much except sleep in Greek times. In Roman times, they called him Somnus. He liked killing people who didn't stay alert at their jobs. If they nodded off at the wrong time, _boom_—they never woke up. He killed the helmsman of Aeneas when they were sailing from Troy."

"Nice guy," I said. "But I still don't understand what it has to do with Jason."

"Neither do I," Clovis said. "But if Hera took your memory, only she can give it back. And if I had to meet the queen of the gods, I'd hope she was more in a Hera mood than a Juno mood. Can I go back to sleep now?"

I stared at the branch dripping Lethe slowly into the cups. Ever since I met Jason, I wondered what it would be like if I lost all of my memories.

Losing memories of Luke, Camp Half-Blood, of Percy…

I shook the thought from my head.

"Thanks, Clovis," I said. "We'll see you at dinner."

I threw the pillow at him.

"Can I get room service?" Clovis yawned. He stumbled over to his bunk. "I feel like…zzzz…" He collapsed with is butt in the air and his face buried in pillow.

"Won't he suffocate?" Jason asked.

"He'll be fine," I said. "But I'm beginning to think that you are in serious trouble."

**xXx**

Dinner passed quickly.

Nothing new happened except that campers could not stop staring at Jason, and sometimes Leo, who was trying to make his cabin laugh by sticking French fries up his nose.

It just got Nyssa annoyed.

Since Jason wasn't claimed yet, he sat next to me at the Athena table, which meant that I got lots of stares, too.

Percy missing, and then I show up with some mysterious, amnesic, Latin-speaking boy. I could already start hearing the rumors that would be circulating camp.

Once dinner was over, we headed over to the campfire, where Piper finally showed up, leaning on Rachel for support.

She looked horrified at the campfire, and freaked out even more when she realized that we were having a sing-along.

We started singing songs, and I could feel the tension in the air disappear. Piper and Jason relaxed, while Leo sang loudly, even though he didn't know any of the words.

Finally, the song ended with a lot of applause, and Chiron walked up to the campfire, brandishing a spear impaled with marshmallows.

"Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I'm happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment, I promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first—"

"What about capture the flag?" an Ares kid yelled. The cabin grumbled in agreement.

"Yes," Chiron said. "I know the Ares cabin is anxious to return to the woods for our regular games."

"And kill people!" one of them shouted.

"However," Chiron said loudly, "until the dragon is brought under control, that won't be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report on that?"

Nyssa stood up, looking uncomfortable. "We're working on it."

"How, Nyssa?" an Ares kid demanded.

"Really hard," she said, looking annoyed. She sat down, and people started to yell and complain. Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones and the campers fell silent.

"We have to be patient," Chiron said. "In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss." He looked at me.

"Percy?" someone asked. The fire dimmed and started to sputter.

This was my cue. I stood up.

"I didn't find Percy," I said. My voice caught embarrassingly when I said his name. "He wasn't at the Grand Canyon like I thought. But we're not giving up. We've got teams everywhere. Grover, Tyson, Nico, the Hunters of Artemis—everyone's out looking. We _will_ find him. Chiron's talking about something different. A new quest."

"It's the Great Prophecy, isn't it?" a voice called from the back. The voice dripped with honey and sweetness.

Drew.

Everyone looked surprised.

"Drew? What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, _come on_," she said haughtily. "Olympus is closed. Percy's disappeared. Hera sends you a vision and you come back with three new demigods—" she sneered the last word "—in one day. I mean, something weird is going on. The Great Prophecy has started, right?"

Everyone turned their gaze to Rachel.

"Well?" Drew called down. "You're the oracle. Has it started or not?"

Rachel looked frightening in the firelight, but she stepped forward calmly.

"Yes," she said. "The Great Prophecy has begun."

Pandemonium broke out.

People chattered and looked worried. When the talking subsided, Rachel stepped forward. Everyone, on instinct, leaned away from her.

"For those of you who have not heard it," Rachel said, "the Great Prophecy was my first prediction. It arrived in August. It goes like this:

_Seven half-bloods shall answer the call._

_To storm or fire the world must fall—"_

Jason leapt to his feet, his eyes wild, like I'd just tasered him on the back.

Even Rachel looked caught off guard. "J-Jason? What's—"

"_Ut cum spiritu postrema sacramentum dejuremus_," he chanted. "_Et hostes ornamenta addent ad ianuam necem_."

Silence flooded in the amphitheater and rang in our ears. No one spoke.

"You just...finished the prophecy," Rachel stammered. "—_An oath to keep with a final breath/And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death_. How did you—"

"I know those lines." Jason winced, putting his hands on his temples. "I don't know how, but I _know_ that prophecy.

"In Latin, no less," Drew called out. "Handsome _and _smart."

A bunch of girls giggled at the Aphrodite spot. Piper looked murderous.

Jason sat down, looking embarrassed, and I put my hand on his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Jason. About everything." I wanted to keep going, but he nodded.

"It's okay," he whispered. "I'm sorry, too. I'm ruining everything."

Before I could respond, Rachel spoke. "Well," she said. "So, yeah, that's the Great Prophecy. We hoped it might not happen for years, but I fear it's starting now. I can't give you proof. It's just a feeling. And like Drew said, some weird stuff is happening. The seven demigods, whoever they are, have not been gathered yet. I get the feeling some are here tonight. Some are not here."

Campers muttered and glanced at each other nervously, until a drowsy voice called out, "I'm here! Oh…were you calling roll?"

"Go back to sleep, Clovis," someone yelled.

Rachel looked miffed. "Anyway," she continued, "we don't know what the Great Prophecy means. We don't know what challenge the demigods will face, but since the _first_ Great Prophecy predicted the Titan War, we can guess the _second_ Great Prophecy will predict something at least that bad."

"Or worse," Chiron murmured.

**Whoa...that was intense.**

**Anywho, this chapter is like, 2,000 words, so I'm going to stop now. Next chapter will continue on!**

**Like how..chapters..uh, work.**

**Anyway, I won't promise to update today, but it may be likely. **

**Now you can't hold me responsible hahaha...awkward.**

**Anyway, please leave me reviews! Maybe get it to like, 35? Yeah, I know that's asking for a lot, but it would make me happy :)**

**THANKS FOR READING.**

**PS. I've noticed something. At the very beginning of the story, the chapters were like, scroll once and they're done.**

**Now they're huge. **

**And I think I've developed the story more in these last chapters. Really gotten to know the characters.**

**I can't believe people actually got through those first chapters. Wow, you guys are the best :DDD**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15! Enjoy, everybody!**

**Must I repeat the disclaimer again? I think you all get it.**

Maybe he didn't mean everyone to overhear, but they did.

The campfire almost went out completely.

"What we _do_ know," Rachel said, "is that the first phase has begun. A major problem has arisen, and we need a quest to solve it. Hera, the queen of the gods, has been taken."

Silence again. And then people start talking at once.

Chiron pounded his hoof again, but Rachel still had to wait before she could get their attention.

Rachel started to talk. She told them about what I found when I got to the Grand Canyon, and about what the storm spirits said. She talked about Piper passing out in Hera's cabin. Finally, Rachel told them about what Jason saw in the Big House, and what Hera's warning was.

"Jason," Rachel said. "Um…do you remember your last name?"

He looked self-conscious, but he shook his head.

"We'll just call you Jason, then," Rachel said. "It's clear Hera herself has issued you a quest."

Rachel paused, and everybody stared. Jason set his jaw and nodded. "I agree."

"You must save Hera to prevent a great evil," Rachel continued. "Some sort of king from rising. For reasons we don't yet understand, it must happen by the winter solstice, only four days from now."

"That's the council day of the gods," I said, standing up again, and moving to Rachel's side. "If the gods don't _already_ know Hera's gone, they will definitely notice her absence by then. They'll probably break out fighting, accusing each other of taking her. That's what they usually do.

"The winter solstice," Chiron said, "is also the time of greatest darkness. The gods gather that day, as mortals always have, because strength is in numbers. The solstice is a day when evil magic is strong. _Ancient_ magic, older than the gods. It is a day when things…stir."

"Okay," I said, really getting annoyed with Chiron. "Thank you, Captain Sunshine. Whatever's going on, I agree with Rachel. Jason has been chosen to lead this quest, so-"

"Why hasn't he been claimed?" someone yelled obnoxiously from the Ares cabin. "If he's so important—"

"He has been claimed," Chiron announced. "Long ago. Jason, give them a demonstration."

He stepped forward nervously, looking as though he didn't know what Chiron was talking about. He glanced at Piper, who mimed flipping a coin.

He reached into his pocket. His coin flashed in the firelight, and when he caught it, he was holding a lance—a rod of gold seven feet long, with a spear tip.

Rachel and I stepped away from the lance, not wanting to be speared.

I looked shocked. "Wasn't that…" I hesitated. "I thought you had a sword."

"Um, it came up tails, I think," Jason said. "Same coin, long-range weapon form."

"Dude, I want one!" yelled the same obnoxious guy from the Ares cabin.

"Better than Clarisse's electric spear, Lamer!" one of his brothers agreed.

"Electric," Jason murmured. "Back away."

Rachel and I got the message. We leapt backward just as electricity filled the air. My hair stood up on end.

Jason raised his javelin and thunder cracked open the sky, a bolt of lightning arcing down the golden spear point and hit the campfire with the force of a bomb.

Rachel and I almost flew off our feet.

When the smoke cleared, the entire camp sat in shock.

"Um…sorry," Jason said, lowering his lance.

Chiron brushed some coals from his beard. "A little overkill, perhaps, but you've made your point. And I believe we know who your father is."

"Jupiter," Jason said. "I mean Zeus. Lord of the Sky."

Everyone started to babble for what felt like the tenth time today. I raised my hands.

"Hold it! How can he be the son of Zeus? The Big Three…their pact not to have mortal kids…how could we not have known about him sooner?"

Chiron didn't answer, but I got the feeling he knew the answer.

This guy was starting to really get on my nerves.

"The important thing is that Jason's here now," Rachel said. "He has a quest to fulfill, which means we will need his own prophecy."

She closed her eyes and swooned. To campers ran forward and caught her and sat her down on a stool that a third brought forward. Green mist swirled around Rachel's feet for the second time that night, and I saw Piper slightly recoil. Rachel opened her eyes and they glowed green. She opened her mouth:

"_Child of lightning, beware the earth,_

_The giant's revenge the seven shall birth,_

_The forge and dove shall break the cage,_

_And death unleash through Hera's rage."_

Rachel collapsed on the last word, and the three campers carried her away into the darkness.

"Is that normal?" Piper asked. Everyone looked at her, and she realized she broke the silence. "I mean…does she spew green smoke a lot?"

"Gods, you're dense!" Drew sneered. "She just issued a prophecy—Jason's prophecy to save Hera! Why don't you just—"

"Drew!" I snapped, rounding on her. "Piper asked a fair question. Something about that prophecy _definitely_ isn't normal. If breaking Hera's cage unleashes her rage and causes a bunch of death…why would we free her? It might be a trap, or—or maybe Hera will turn on her rescuers. She's never been kind to heroes."

Jason rose. "I don't have much of a choice. Hera took my memory. I need it back. Besides, we can't just _not_ help the queen of the heavens if she's in trouble."

Nyssa stood up. "Maybe. But you should listen to Annabeth. Hera can be vengeful She threw her own son—our dad—down a mountain just because he was ugly."

"_Real_ ugly," snickered someone from Aphrodite.

"Shut up!" Nyssa growled. "Anyway, we've also got to think—why beware the earth? And what's the giant's revenge? What are we dealing with here that's powerful enough to kidnap the queen of the heavens?"

No one answered. I looked at Chiron, and we started having a silent exchange.

Me: _It can't be the giant's revenge._

Chiron: _Don't say anything. We don't want to scare them._

Me: _I'm right? I can't believe it. We have to tell them!_

Chiron: _Later, Annabeth. If you told them, they would be too terrified to proceed._

Gah, that centaur was really good at getting on my nerves.

I took a deep breath. "It's Jason's quest, so it's Jason's choice. Obviously, he's the child of lightning. According to tradition, he may choose any two companions."

Someone from Hermes, Travis, yelled, "Well, you, obviously, Annabeth. You've got the most experience."

"No, Travis," I said. "First off, I'm _not_ helping Hera. Every time I've tried, she's deceived me, or it's come back to bite me later. Forget it. No way. Secondly, I'm leaving first thing in the morning to find Percy."

"It's connected," Piper blurted out. "You know that's true, don't you? This whole business, your boyfriend's disappearance—it's all connected."

"How?" Drew demanded. "If you're so smart, how?"

Piper looked annoyed, but she didn't say anything. I came to her rescue.

"You may be right, Piper. If this is connected, I'll find out from the other end—by searching for Percy. As I said, I'm not about to rush off to rescue Hera, even if her disappearance sets the rest of the Olympians fighting again. But there's another reason I can't go. The prophecy says otherwise."

"It says who _I_ pick," Jason agreed. "_The forge and dove shall break the cage. _The forge is the symbol of Vul—Hephaestus."

Nyssa's shoulders slumped. "If you have to beware the earth, you should avoid traveling overland. You'll need air transport."

"The flying chariot's broken," Nyssa continued, "and the pegasi, we're using them to search for Percy. But maybe Hephaestus cabin can help figure out something else to help. With Jake incapacitated, I'm senior camper. I can volunteer for the quest." She sounded unenthusiastic.

Leo suddenly stood up. "It's me."

Several of his cabinmates tried to pull him down, but he resisted.

"No, it's me, I know it is. I've got an idea for the transportation problem. Let me try. I can fix this!"

Jason studied him for a minute. Then he smiled. "We started this together, Leo. Seems only right you come along. You find us a ride, you're in."

"Yes!" Leo pumped his fist.

"It'll be dangerous," Nyssa warned him. "Hardship, monsters, terrible suffering. Possibly none of you will come back alive."

"Oh." His face fell. Then he realized everyone was watching. "I mean...Oh, cool! Suffering? I love suffering! Let's do this."

I nodded. "Then, Jason, you only need to choose the third quest member. The dove—"

Drew leapt to her feet. "Oh, absolutely! The dove is Aphrodite. Everybody knows that. I am _totally_ yours."

Piper clenched her hands. "No."

Drew rolled her eyes. "Oh please, Dumpster girl. Back off."

"_I_ had the vision of Hera; not you. I have to do this."

"Anyone can have a vision. You were just in the right place at the right time." Drew turned to Jason. "Look, fighting is all fine, I suppose. And people who build things…" She glared at Leo. "Well, I suppose someone has to get their hands dirty. But you need _charm_ on your side. I can be pretty persuasive. I could help a lot."

I felt this weird feeling to agree with Drew.

"Well…" I said. "Given the wording of the prophecy—"

"No!" Piper yelled, and her voice sounded richer. "I'm supposed to go."

Everyone started to nod. Drew looked around, thunderstruck.

"Get over it!" Drew snapped. "What can Piper do?"

Piper's mouth opened, but she didn't say anything.

"Well," Drew said smugly, "I guess that settles it."

Light suddenly glowed around Piper. I saw her hair curl itself, and her clothes suddenly transformed into a pure white gown. Gold armbands snaked around Piper's arms. Makeup was applied to her face, and she looked absolutely gorgeous.

Everyone stared at Piper like she just exploded.

"What?" she demanded. She looked above her, and then down at herself. She yelped.

She tugged at her dress, and then felt her hair.

"Oh, god," she gasped. "What happened?"

Stunned, I pointed at Piper's reflective dagger. Piper gingerly pulled it out and stared.

"Beautiful," Jason said, staring. "Piper, you…you're a knockout."

Drew's face was of horror.

"No!" she cried. "Not possible!"

"This isn't me," Piper protested. "I—don't understand."

Chiron folded his front legs into a bow, and the rest of the camp followed suit.

"Hail, Piper McLean," Chiron said gravely. "Daughter of Aphrodite, lady of the doves, goddess of love."

**I think that's a pretty good spot to end!**

**Besides, the Double R did, too, so...**

**I'm just a big copy-cat.**

**Not much to say here, so I'm just gonna leave now.**

**Please leave me a review! They're super fun, and easy to make!**

**Next review infomercial, right there.**


	16. Chapter 16

**I'm baack! **

**J'ai une question: Do you like it when I update twice a day, almost every day of the week, or should I wait a couple days? **

**It's all up to you. ****Let me know.**

**Disclaimer: Just check previous chapters, fool.**

Piper glared at everyone, especially at Drew, before turning on her heel and sitting abruptly on the first row of the amphitheater, avoiding everyone's gazes; especially the Aphrodite cabin.

Jason moved next to me, staring after her. "A knockout. I called her a _knockout_. I am such an idiot. Why couldn't I just say pretty? Beautiful?" He rubbed his face with his hands.

"Jason…" I really didn't know what to say.

"This meeting is adjourned," Chiron announced shortly.

Campers struggled to their feet and disappeared towards their cabins in the darkness.

I put my hand on Jason's shoulder. "Go talk to her. Ask her to go on the quest with you. I can just tell that she wants to talk to you. You'll make her feel better."

Jason nodded and walked hesitantly over to where she was sitting.

I watched them. Piper rubbed her arms, and Jason found a blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders.

A wave of sadness came over me. Seeing Piper and Jason look at each other like that was just another painful reminder that Percy was gone.

I could see them talking, but I didn't know what they were saying.

They stood. I walked over to them both.

"Piper, Jason, I'll show you guys to your cabins. I think you guys might want some sleep." I looked around, but Leo wasn't in sight.

I lead them away from the amphitheater and took them first to the Aphrodite cabin. I remembered Piper's comment earlier today:

_Is that where supermodels go to die?_

The irony was almost funny. Almost.

Piper stared at the cabin. Her expression looked as though she would like to take a flamethrower to the Barbie house.

I poked my head in. Drew wasn't in sight. Probably in the bathroom smearing gunk on her face before bed.

"Well…Here you are," I said awkwardly.

Piper angrily strode in, and I showed her her bed. She collapsed on it and fell asleep almost instantly.

I took Jason to the Zeus cabin. Several campers were waiting outside the door with a cot and blanket in hand.

"What an honor, Jason. The Zeus cabin," one of them murmured.

Jason ignored him, took the cot and blanket, and walked inside the cabin, closing the door behind him.

I walked to the Athena cabin. Malcolm was waiting for me, and it looked like he was going to bombard me with questions.

"Not now, Malcolm," I said. He shut his mouth with a snap.

I went over to my bunk and sat down, running the events of the day through my head.

Finding Leo, Jason, and Piper. No Percy. Crash-landing in the lake. My talk with Piper. Hera's cabin and the vision. The conversation with Jason and Clovis. The amphitheater.

I'd had weirder days.

I lay down and stared at the bunk above me. Exhausted, I rolled over and shut my eyes.

* * *

I was running down the hill to get to camp. A figure stood at the bottom, waiting for me.

"Percy!" I shouted, sprinting towards him.

His arms wrapped me.

"I've missed you, Annabeth."

I started to cry, and I felt embarrassed. I put my head against his chest. He wiped a tear away with the back of his thumb.

"Where have you been?" I sobbed. "I can't find you." I punched him in the arm.

"Come on, Annabeth. I'm right here. What are you talking about? You've only just come back to camp. I've been waiting for you to arrive."

I looked up, confused, but suddenly he wasn't Percy. It was Luke.

"Luke!" I shrieked. I stumbled from him and I fell on my butt. I scrambled away.

"Annabeth, it's me. Why are you leaving?" He held his arms out. His face kept changing from Luke's to Percy's, except the eyes remained the same. Gold.

"Get away from me!"

The dream flashed and the scene morphed.

Percy was lying in the middle of a charred room. He was on his back, and he was barely breathing.

"Percy?" I tried to move to him, but it felt like I was trying to walk through syrup.

I heard growling.

I turned and saw a pack of wolves walk towards Percy. I started to run towards him, but I wasn't going anywhere. He didn't stir. They circled him, their mouths foaming.

"No!"

A wolf turned and faced me.

It lunged.

* * *

My eyes flew open. The teeth had been inches from my face. I sat up, the sheets tangled around my legs, and I was drenched in sweat.

"I have got to find him," I muttered to myself. I sat there in bed, breathing hard.

Tears prickled my eyes. I grabbed my pillow and just started to cry into it. I tried to cry as silently as possible. Thankfully, no one woke up.

When I stopped, my hair was sticking to my neck and face. I swept it into a ponytail and wiped my eyes on the corner of a bedsheet.

The sun was just rising into the valley, and my cabinmates started to stir. I quickly got dressed and belted my knife to my waist. I grabbed a winter coat and backpack under the bed and started to fill the pack with provisions.

For some reason, I wanted to see Jason.

I walked over to his cabin, the pack bouncing on my back.

I pulled out my knife and checked my reflection. I couldn't tell I'd been crying. Good.

I silently opened the door just in case he was sleeping, but the cot was empty. I peeked inside and saw him sitting in a corner of the room, staring at pictures left behind by Thalia.

I walked over to him, looking over his shoulder. He didn't notice.

I decided to break the silence. "That's Thalia."

Jason slightly jumped and turned around, still holding the picture.

"She's the other child of Zeus who lived here—but not for long. Sorry, I should have knocked."

"It's fine," Jason said. "Not like I think of this place as home." Thalia didn't, either.

He looked me over. "Don't suppose you've changed your mind about coming with us?"

I shook my head. "You got a good team already. I'm off to look for Percy." Especially after the dream I'd had.

Jason looked disappointed.

"Hey, you'll do fine," I reassured him. "Something tells me this isn't your first quest."

Jason didn't look too reassured, and he glanced at the pictures as if they would help him. For some reason, he looked a bit jealous.

He looked up.

"You know who I am, don't you?" he said suddenly.

I grabbed my dagger and looked around to see if there was anything to sit on. There wasn't.

"Honestly, Jason…I'm not sure. My best guess, you're a loner. It happens sometimes. For one reason or another, the camp never found you, but you survived anyway by constantly moving around. Trained yourself to fight. Handled the monsters on your own. You beat the odds." My explanation had suddenly turned into a narrative of my life before camp. I stopped quickly.

"The first thing Chiron said to me was _you should be dead_," Jason said.

I nodded, understanding. "That could be why," I said. "Most demigods would never make it on their own. And a child of Zeus—I mean, it doesn't get any more dangerous than that. The chances of your reaching fifteen without finding Camp Half-Blood or dying—microscopic. But like I said, it does happen. Thalia ran away when she was young. She survived on her own for years. Even took care of me for a while. So maybe you were a loner, too."

Jason held out his arm. "And these marks?"

I looked at the tattoos wearily. Those things really bothered me for some reason. "Well, the eagle is the symbol of Zeus, so that makes sense. The twelve lines—maybe they stand for years, if you'd been making them since you were three years old. SPQR—that's the motto of the old Roman Empire: _Senatus Pulusque Romanus_, the Senate and the People of Rome. Though why you would burn that on your own arm, I don't know. Unless you had a _really_ harsh Latin teacher…"

He looked down at his mark and rubbed it with his hand.

"I, um…had a weird dream last night," he said.

Ha, me too, I thought.

I nodded. "Happens all the time to demigods. What did you see?"

He started talking. He told me about wolves and a ruined house surrounded by redwoods. While he talked, I started to get more and more freaked out. He was describing the exact place where I saw Percy. I started to pace, my mind racing.

"You don't remember where this house is?" I asked.

Jason shook his head. "But I'm sure I've been there before."

"Redwoods," I muttered. "Could be northern California. And the she-wolf…I've studied goddesses, spirits, and monsters my whole life. I've never heard of Lupa."

"She said the enemy was a 'her'. I thought maybe it was Hera, but—"

"I wouldn't trust Hera, but I don't think she's the enemy. And that thing rising out of the earth—" I shuddered, my expression darkening. "You've got to stop it."

"You know what it is, don't you?" he asked. "Or at least, you've got a guess. I saw your face last night at the campfire. You looked at Chiron like it was suddenly dawning on you, but you didn't want to scare us."

I hesitated. This guy was really smart. "Jason, the thing about prophecies…the more you know, the more you try to change them, and that can be disastrous. Chiron believes it's better that you find your own path, find out things in your own time. If he'd told me everything he knew before my first quest with Percy…" I stopped, taking a deep breath to calm me down, memories flooding back. "…I've got to admit, I'm not sure I would've been able to go through with it. For your quest, it's even more important."

"That bad, huh?"

"Not if you succeed. At least…I hope not."

"But I don't even know where to start. Where am I supposed to go?"

"Follow the monsters," I suggested, an idea forming in my mind.

He paused, thinking.

"Okay," he said. "How do I find storm winds?"

**So...a new chapter! Yay!**

**Let me know what you think in the review section. Opinions are a great thing to share!**

**I'll be back soon, maybe.**

**OKAY BYE.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Here we are! The last bit I'll use for a while from _the Lost Hero_!**

**Disclaimer: Refer to previous chapters please. I'm tired of typing it out.**

I smirked. "Personally, I'd ask a wind god. Aeolus is the master of all the winds, but he's a little…unpredictable. No one finds him unless he wants to be found. I'd try one of the four seasonal wind gods that work for Aeolus. The nearest one, the one who has the most dealings with heroes, is Boreas, the North Wind."

"So if I looked him up on Google maps—"

"Oh, he's not hard to find," I promised. "He settled in North America like all the other gods. So of course he picked the oldest northern settlement, about as far north as you can go."

"Maine?" Jason asked.

"Farther."

Jason thought for a minute. "Canada. Quebec."

I actually smiled this time. "I hope you speak French."

"Thanks, Annabeth." He looked at the photo in his hand again. "So, um…you said it was dangerous being a child of Zeus. What ever happened to Thalia?"

"Oh, she's fine," I told him. "She became a Hunter of Artemis—one of the handmaidens of the goddess. They roam around the country killing monsters." And finding my boyfriend. "We don't see them at camp very often."

He pointed to a boy behind Thalia. "Who's the other kid in the photo?" he asked. "The sandy haired guy."

A flash of my dream ran through my head. The morphing face of his and Percy's. "That's Luke. He's dead now," I said shortly.

A memory decided to play in my head.

I saw Luke dying in my arms, his eyes fading back to their original blue. I was crying.

"Did you…did you love me?" he had asked weakly.

I looked away from his face, turning to Percy. His face was worried, as if I'd answer wrong. He also looked slightly angry. That was when I truly, honestly realized who I loved. It had never been Luke at all. It had been Percy. Since the first time I saw him and told him he drooled in his sleep. I had sat by his bed while he recovered from the Minotaur the entire time, not sure why I cared so much about him.

I knew now.

I looked back at Luke's twisted face. I did. I did before, but not now. "There was a time I thought…well, I thought…" I gazed at Percy. I was in love with him. With Percy.

I turned back to Luke. "You were like a brother to me, Luke," I whispered. "But I didn't love you."

He sighed and nodded, relaxing in my arms.

Jason snapped me back to reality. "How old is she now?"

I shook my head, wiping away the memory. "Hard to say. She was a tree for a while. Now she's immortal."

"What?"

He looked completely thunderstruck. I seriously laughed out loud. "Don't worry. It's not something all children of Zeus go through. It's a long story, but…well, she was out of commission for a long time. If she'd aged regularly, she'd be in her twenties now, but she still looks the same as in that picture, like she's about…well, about your age. Fifteen or sixteen?"

"What's her last name?" he asked, almost automatically.

I hesitated. "She didn't use a last name, really. If she had to, she'd use her mom's but they didn't get along. Thalia ran away when she was pretty young."

Jason didn't say anything. He just looked at me with his ridiculously familiar blue eyes.

"Grace," I said. "Thalia Grace."

The picture fell from his hands. His eyes widened and it looked like he was going to fall over.

"You okay?"

He didn't respond. He started to breathe heavily, his face turning pale.

"What is it?"

"You have to swear not to tell anyone else."

"Jason—" I was worried. His eyes looked wild.

"Swear it," he demanded. "Until I figure out what's going on, what all this means—" He rubbed his burned arm hard. "You have to keep it a secret."

I paused, thinking it through. Why did he freak out at her name? Curiosity won me over. "All right. Until you tell me it's okay, I won't share what you say with anyone else. I swear on the River Styx."

Thunder rumbled in the cabin, shaking my bones.

Jason picked up the photo.

"My last name is Grace. This is my sister."

I almost fell over. My face flushed, and I stared at him. No. No way. No freaking way. Her brother was dead. Gone. He was lying; playing a horrible joke. This was…

His eyes. His blue eyes. I suddenly realized where I had seen them before.

They were exactly like Thalia's. Maybe a bit lighter, but they were hers. Electric blue, gazing into you like they knew everything about you.

Before I could say anything, a flood of people burst into the cabin. In the lead was Butch.

"Hurry!" he shouted. "The dragon is back."

Jason leapt to his feet and we bolted outside.

Leo was standing next to the rogue dragon, grinning like a maniac. Apollo cabin archers were surrounding the dragon, arrows notched and ready to shoot.

Jason and I forced our way through the crowd. "Stand down!"

He stared at the dragon and Leo. "Leo, what have you done?"

Leo was practically vibrating from excitement. "I found a ride! You said I could go on the quest if I got you a ride. Well, I got you a class-A metallic flying bad boy! Festus can take us anywhere!"

This kid was insane, but I was seriously impressed. He'd manage to tame the huge automaton into a flying machine. He was talented. Almost as good as Beckendorf.

"It—has wings," Nyssa stammered. Her mouth was hanging, and her eyes practically fell out of her sockets.

"Yeah!" Leo shouted. "I found them a reattached them."

But it never had wings. Where did you find them?" Nyssa asked.

Leo's grin faded, and he hesitated. He was definitely hiding something.

"In…the woods," he said. "Repaired his circuits, too, mostly, so no more problems with him going haywire."

"Mostly?" Nyssa asked weakly.

The dragon's head twitched. It tilted to one side and oil streamed out of its ear and all over Leo.

"Just a few kinks to work out," Leo said simply.

"But how did you survive…? I mean, the fire breath…" Nyssa said in awe.

"I'm quick," Leo said. "And lucky. Now, am I on this quest, or what?"

Jason stared at Leo, scratching his neck. "You named him Festus? You know that in Latin, 'festus' means 'happy'? You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the Dragon?"

The dragon flapped its wings. They were massive. A shadow was cast over some of the campers, and they dove to the ground in fear. I just gazed at the dragon, truly impressed. The thing was incredible.

"That's a yes, bro!" Leo said. "Now, um, I'd really suggest we get going, guys. I already picked up some supplies in the—um, woods. And all these people with weapons are making Festus nervous."

Jason frowned. "But we haven't planned on anything yet. We can't just—"

"Go," I said suddenly. "Jason, you've only got three days until the solstice now, and you should never keep a nervous dragon waiting. This is certainly a good omen. Go!"

Jason nodded. He turned to Piper, who materialized by his side. "You ready, partner?"

"You bet."

He took her hand and led her through the crowd to the dragon. Leo bounced up and down a couple times, and then scrambled to the top of the dragon, gesturing to some seats behind him. They sat down next to him, Piper looking a bit nervous.

"Festus, let's ride!" he said, looking as though he had been waiting for the moment to say those words.

The dragon shuddered and extended its wings to full span. Reared on its back legs and leapt into the sky, its powerful wings reflecting the sun.

As they vanished into the sky, I was the only one who waved.

**Next up: Annabeth's search for Percy! Wahoo!**

**I don't have any reference to the books for this, so I'm gonna be all on my own.**

**My words, my style.**

**Yeah...**

**I might not update as often as I did with _the Lost Hero_ chapters, because I basically just rewrote it in Annabeth's point of view. I could do those very quickly.**

**Here, I'm in danger of contradicting stories, writers block, and coming up with new ideas.**

**Sounds like fun!**

**YEAH. No idea when I can update again. Like I said, starting from scratch.**

**I'M SO EXCITED.**

**Don't forget to drop me a review. Don't worry, tLH chapters are ovah!**

**OKAY BYE.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Here ya'll go! I hope you like it.**

**Sorry if some of the stuff happens really fast. I tried to 'slow' it down, but I don't know if I did successfully.**

**And, I'm just not the Double R.**

I slipped away before anyone else could talk to me. I quickly walked over to the pegasus stables. Butch was still where Festus had left, so I didn't have to worry about him.

I walked down the straw-covered aisle, looking for a certain stall.

I found it near the end. "Blackjack."

The pegasus was drinking from his trough. He looked up, water dripping from his nose and curiously walked over to me, his wings fluttering.

I patted his nose. "Could you do me a favor?"

He snorted. I reached into my pack and pulled out some sugar cubes. Percy had told me that he would do almost anything for one. I also knew that he could communicate with Blackjack telepathically. What I would give to be able to do it now.

Blackjack's eyes widened, and he leaned his head over the gate, trying to get to my hand.

"I need a way to get around to find Percy. Could you help me out?"

At Percy's name, Blackjack whinnied, almost sadly. I gave him some sugar and opened the gate, leading him outside.

I almost ran into someone.

Butch. Crap.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"Sorry, Butch. I need to take him. Don't try to stop me," I said shortly.

"I don't think so," he said, pushing past me to reach for Blackjack.

Blackjack reared back and shot in between us, almost knocking Butch to the ground. He stopped a couple feet away, and I swear he was waiting for me to get on.

"Bye, Butch. Send me an Iris-message when Leo, Jason, and Piper get back," I said, swinging up onto Blackjack.

He stared at me. "Annabeth—"

"Go!" I shouted, and we soared into the sky.

**xXx**

I was seriously glad I was wearing my winter coat. The air was freezing, especially several thousand feet above ground.

"I need to talk to Mrs. Jackson," I told Blackjack. "Do you know where she lives?"

I saw Blackjack roll his eyes, like that was a stupid question.

"Sorry," I said. Who knew pegasi could be so full of it?

About twenty minutes later, I found myself standing in front of her and Paul's apartment. I told Blackjack to go on top of the roof. Annoy the pigeons or something, and keep a lookout for anything suspicious.

I tentatively reached my hand out to knock. For some reason, I felt nervous. But, I had this hunch that I should talk to her.

Taking a deep breath, I knocked.

Several minutes passed by with nothing. I was just about to leave when the door swung open.

"Annabeth?"

Mrs. Jackson, well, she looked seriously depressed. Her eyes were slightly rimmed red, and she had dark circles under her eyes. But when she saw me, her whole face lit up.

"Sally, who is it?" I heard Paul call from inside the apartment.

"I'm sorry to come by," I said, feeling self-conscious.

"Sorry?" Mrs. Jackson said. "Annabeth, come in!"

She stood aside, her face glowing, and ushered me in. It looked like she lost years when she saw me. She led me into the living room where Paul was sitting on the couch, worry-lines surrounding his eyes.

"Annabeth," he said. He stood up and gave me a hug.

"Hi, Paul," I said. "I'm sorry to just show up, but I just wanted…" I faltered. Seeing Mrs. Jackson and Paul so sad made me choke up.

He nodded, understanding.

"Do you want anything, Annabeth? I think I might have some lemonade in the fridge," Mrs. Jackson said.

"I—no. No thank you. I just wanted to tell you that…that I will not stop until I find your son. Until I find Percy. I'm about to go searching for him right now, and I think I have an idea of where he might be."

Relief flickered across their faces.

"I won't give up," I said.

Mrs. Jackson sighed, a smile on her face. "I know you won't, Annabeth."

**xXx**

I touched my back pocket before climbing on Blackjack, feeling my Yankees cap. It was the best gift that my mom had given me, and I knew that the gods didn't really talk to their kids, but I really needed reassurance from her.

Of course, the gods go silent when we—I— really needed them.

Gods, I hated admitting that.

The cap was a really good reminder, too.

I clambered onto Blackjack.

"We've got a long journey ahead of us," I told him. "You up for it?"

He snorted and bobbed his head.

"We need to get to California, preferably in about one or two days before the questers get back. Could you do your distance-bending when we need it?" I said, thinking about what Butch did to the pegasi when we were taking Jason, Leo, and Piper back to camp.

He bobbed his head again, stamping the ground. I hoped that meant 'yes'. I gave him a sugar cube.

"Well, then, let's go," I said, twisting my hands into his mane. I hated taking off.

He bounded forward, wings extended, and leapt off the side of the building. Before we could fully free-fall, his strong wings started beating the air, carrying us into the sky.

I had spent about an hour at Sally's house. It was probably about nine in the morning.

The first couple hours remained uneventful. Other than freaking out a flock of geese, nothing too bad happened.

I was starting to get suspicious. Nothing had happened to us for about four hours.

Blackjack and I were somewhere over Illinois. He was just barely starting to get tired, and it was about one in the afternoon. Plenty of time to make it to the central states.

"Hey, let's find some place to rest and get water, okay?" I said, patting his neck.

He grunted in response. We started to descend.

Something flashed in the corner of my eye.

Blackjack's ears perked up.

I pulled out my knife, holding it out, looking for what I had seen.

Nothing.

I wasn't about to let my guard down, and I didn't relax.

I saw it again.

I whipped around, looking for what it was.

Again, nothing.

Blackjack was starting to get nervous. He was starting to twitch, and he tensed up underneath me.

A ghost appeared out of nowhere.

It had a horrible face, its eyes bulging, its mouth open in a silent scream. Its skin was stretched and deformed, and it was bald.

A _taraxippi, _a spirit that scares horses_._

Pegasi, apparently, were no exception.

Thunder cracked in the air, exploding my eardrums.

Blackjack reared backward in mid-flight, eyes rolling. I was flung from his back, and fell into the empty sky.

I admit it. I screamed. I screamed in absolute terror.

The ground came steadily nearer, and I was completely helpless.

I am going to die, I thought frantically.

I hit something hard, and the wind was knocked out of me.

Black spots danced in my eyes. I felt what I landed on.

Blackjack. He caught me.

Pegasi are not comfortable things to land on.

We fell towards the ground in a steep dive, the _taraxippi_ right behind us, its scream now completely hearable.

I turned around on Blackjack's back, gripping his stomach with my legs, facing the ghost. I tore through my pack, which had miraculously stayed on my back during the free-fall, seeing if there was anything I could use.

Nothing.

"Blackjack!" I screamed. "Now would be a good time!"

My vision was filled with black. After a stomach-wrenching twist, we flew straight towards a mountain.

**Ooh! Cliffhanger!**

**I have a couple ideas of what happens next, and I can't wait to share it with you guys! :DDDDDDD**

**It might take me a while to update again, what with school ending for me in about two weeks.**

**Extreme fight for getting my grades up. Just saying.**

**Leave me a review and tell me what you think! Did I do the thrill justice? Was it a good idea? Do you like that Blackjack is in it?**

**OKAY BYE.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hello, all! I has a new chapter for you!**

**Let it commence.**

"Blackjack!" I shrieked.

He extended his wings to full span and banked sharply to the left. I fell against his neck and tightly squeezed. I could have kicked the side of the mountain with my foot.

I thought we were going to make it.

He banked too late. His right wing clipped the mountain, and he and I fell through the air into the forest below.

I crashed through the trees, and I could hear Blackjack above me trying to right himself in the air.  
I landed hard on the ground. My breath _whooshed_ out of my lungs for the second time in two minutes.

I curled in a ball, clutching my stomach. I took deep breaths.

"B-Blackjack?" I finally wheezed.

I heard crashing through the underbrush. I sat up, fumbling for my knife.

Blackjack emerged from the bushes, looking horribly scraped up but okay. How he didn't break one of his wings was beyond me.

I stood up slowly, looking around. My knife didn't stab me in the thigh, which was also a miracle. I had made a pretty good-sized hole through the canopy of trees. The branches had painfully broken my fall.

I checked the backpack. Minus the smashed granola bars and sugar cubes, everything seemed fine. I checked my back pocket.

Nothing.

I shoved my hand inside, feeling around, panic building.

**A/N: Okay, okay! I know that sounds…weird. Just get past it. She's frantic, okay? You would do the same with a missing cell phone.**

My hat was gone.

The gift from my mom. The thing that had helped so many times in the past. I felt like I'd lost a limb.

"No, no, no…" I murmured, tearing through the vegetation, seeing if it had caught on a bush or something.

Nothing.

Blackjack stared at me while I ripped apart the small clearing trying to find my hat.

I rounded on him, feeling suddenly angry. "You know what? You can stare all you want. It's _your_ fault that we're in this mess! _You _had to get freaked out by that ghost! _You_ had to turn too slow! I don't even know where we are! We could be back in freaking New York and I wouldn't even know!"

He stared at me more, a bit of hurt in his eyes.

I realized what I just did. I'd just yelled at the horse that gave me a ride and saved my life. Twice.

"I-I'm sorry," I mumbled. "I'm just…"

I sat down on a nearby rock, my head in my hands. I took a couple shuddery breaths.

"Okay. Okay, what we need to do is figure out where we are and how to get out of here. I take it you're exhausted, so we'll have to go by foot." I looked at the sky blocked by trees. "If I could just see the sun I'd know which direction we're facing."

I felt almost as helpless as I did in the Labyrinth. Before Rachel got there, anyway.

I stood up and started to pace in a circle, Blackjack's eyes following me.

"That way," I said, pointing almost randomly. I figured that once the sun started setting, I would be able to tell by the shadows of the trees. Then we could change direction. We just needed to figure out where west was.

I tramped through the bushes and started walking, Blackjack in my wake.

I took another backwards glance, just in case I missed seeing my hat in an obvious place.

I didn't.

**xXx**

We walked for hours. If there were any animals in the forest, they avoided us completely. My nerves were on edge, and I kept a cautious hand on my dagger. The forest was almost completely silent. I hardly heard birdsong. Other than the sound of my feet and Blackjack's hooves on the forest floor, it was quiet.

We stopped every hour so we could drink. I was too wary to eat all my food at once, so I lived with my stomach growling.

I stared at the ground, watching my feet. For some reason, this calmed me down. I was anxious. It could just be my ADHD, but I had an uneasy feeling ever since I crash-landed in this forest. The silence pressed against my ears, and I seriously wanted someone to talk to that could respond. I felt like I was talking to myself whenever I spoke to the pegasus.

Right, left, right, left.

Blackjack was relatively silent. He didn't do anything except for the occasional snort.

Right, left, right, left.

I shuddered. It was starting to get cold.

Right, left, right, left, right, left.

When would the sun cast shadows? I looked up and saw some of the orange-tinted sky.

I stopped and Blackjack almost ran into me. I pointed. "Look! The shadows are pointing this way! We've been going in the right direction." I was practically ecstatic. I wanted to get out of this deathly quiet forest.

I started to run, Blackjack trotting behind me.

He suddenly neighed in alarm. I took a step into open space and fell down a hidden gulch.

**xXx**

The first thought that ran through my mind was 'Are you kidding me?'

I slid on my butt down the muddy hill and skidded when I hit the bottom. Blackjack whinnied at the top of the hill, prodding the ground with his hoof. I looked up the side. It was a long way up, and would be nearly impossible to climb.

I felt like an idiot. I got so happy about the stupid shadows that I looked up from my feet. If I had been watching them, I could have stopped myself. Now I was stuck at the bottom of a ravine.

Things were really not working out for me right now.

It was like something was stopping me from getting close to finding Percy.

I glanced around, thinking of other options. They were slim. The sun was really starting to set now, and temperatures were starting to drop. I had taken off my coat earlier from all of the walking and had draped it over Blackjack's back.

"Hey, could you get my coat down here?" I yelled to him.

I saw him turn around and buck his legs, and my coat fluttered down next to me.

"Thank you!"

He neighed in response.

"Uh, well, since I'm stuck in this…situation, we might as well get some rest. We can figure out a way to get me out of here in the morning."

I pulled out my bedroll from the pack and laid it out. I put on my coat and crawled inside.

"Um…goodnight…Let me know if anything bad happens."

Gods, I am an idiot, I thought as I drifted off.

* * *

I leaned against his chest, breathing in the salt air. I flexed my toes, feeling the sand in between them.

"This is nice," I sighed.

"Mmm," he murmured.

He took my hand and laced it in between his fingers. He suddenly moved backward, making me fall back into the sand.

"Hey!" I grabbed a handful and threw it at him. He laughed, shielding his face.

"What're you going to do about it, Wise Girl?"

"Oho, when I'm done with you…" I trailed off, my grin sliding off my face.

"What?" he glanced around in surprise. I pointed.

Black smoke was rolling across the beach, making its way swiftly towards us. The sunny sky turned overcast, and thunder shook the loose sand. He paused for half a second.

"Run!" he shouted. I scrambled to my feet and ran, kicking up sand, Percy right behind me.

My breathing turned ragged. I couldn't get enough air. It was like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders again.

"Annabeth!" I heard him scream.

I turned. His feet were getting held down by the sand, the black smoke getting closer. Sweat ran through his hair and he had a look of absolute horror on his face.

"Percy!" I screamed. I tried to run to him but my feet wouldn't move. They were also being trapped by the sand. Ribbons of black smoke snaked up my legs.

He managed to break free, and he stumbled. He took several running steps before the mass of the smoke enveloped him completely. I heard him yell in terror before he was choked off.

"_No!_"

A pen flew from the smoke and landed in between my feet.

* * *

I sat up, screaming. I stopped myself suddenly and breathed deeply, calming myself down.

Just a dream, Annabeth. Just a dream, I thought, reassuring myself.

I felt a crawling sensation on my arm.

I looked down slowly.

Spiders. Hundreds of them.

I began to scream again.

**For some reason, this chapter was really hard for me to write.**

**Oh well, it's done!**

**I had TONS of fun writing Annabeth's dream that she had that night, though.**

**Whew, it was exhilarating.**

**Let me know what you think about zis chapter with a review!**

**I'm done talking now.**

**BYE.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Weeell HI. Long time, no see. Er, read.**

**Okay, okay, I can 'splain. Last two weeks of the term completely consumed my life. What with finals and passing classes, I had no time for Annabeth.**

**Now that I am now going to be a Senior next year, and I have the summer ahead of me, lots more time! Which means more time updating.**

**YAY.**

**Okay, I'll stop typing now and let you read.**

I clapped my hand to my mouth and scrambled backwards, kicking my bedroll away.

I started to hyperventilate. There were so many.

They crawled slowly towards me from the shadowed gulch.

Thankfully, I had slept with the pack on my shoulder and I flung it open, fumbling for a flashlight. I clicked it on.

Big mistake.

Hundreds. Thousands. I think I almost fainted from complete fear.

"B-Black—" I choked weakly. I swung my flashlight around spastically, illuminating the bottom of the ravine. Light bounced up the sides of the gulch, showing weeds jutting out from the sides that I hadn't noticed before.

I was just about to climb up—abandoning my bedroll—when something caught the corner of my eye.

Something blue.

My hat. My missing hat.

My Yankees hat flopped over the side of the rock, spiders crawling over it. How it had gotten there I had absolutely no idea.

Still the spiders scuttled towards me, and I backed up against the hill. It was like the very ground itself was rolling toward me, but I had only one desperate thought. I had to get my hat.

I sent a frantic prayer to my mother. Anything to help me get my hat.

I got nothing.

I then sent up a prayer to any god that would listen. Anything. Anyone.

Still, not a thing. No vision, no reassuring thought, no sudden glow of light.

I saw my vision fade. I was going to faint.

No.

"No!" I screamed. I leapt forward and sprinted for my hat. I felt stinging pains on my legs. Spiders were biting them, but I surged forward, adrenaline pumping through my veins with the force of a firehose. Webs tangled around my feet. Thick webs. It felt like I was going nowhere, that they were holding me back. The hat seemed to get farther and farther away.

My fingertip caught the brim of the hat and there was a weird rushing noise. It was like the forest itself was inhaling. I fell down in shock as thunder cracked across the sky. Webs tangled around my body and hair. I struggled to get up.

Wind suddenly blasted down the ravine, and spiders flew in every direction and making them disappear into the night. I flung my hands over my face, clutching the hat tightly in my fist. Webs arced up into the sky, brushing my face and getting in my mouth.

Thunder rumbled one more time.

Sudden silence.

I have no idea how long I lay on the ground gasping. I sucked in air, trying to calm my pounding heart.

The sun started to rise. The gulch started to become more blue than black, and I could see without the flashlight again.

Another feeling of helplessness surged over me. First getting lost in the woods, and then the feeling of absolute terror that left me practically paralyzed.

Stupid spiders. Stupid Arachne. Stupid fear.

I finally slowly sat up, the numb feeling that I had got disappearing. I took a few more breaths and then lifted my hat and inspected it.

I brushed off a couple webs and turned it over in my hands. I shook it back into form and placed it on my head.

I watched my shadow on the hill ripple slowly and then vanish. I could still see my own body and my bitten arms and legs, but I knew nothing else could. I opened the backpack and sprinkled nectar on my arms and legs and watched the bites slowly shrink away.

I took off the hat and looked at it again, a small smile on my face.

Was this hat worth spiders?

Definitely.

**Yeah, yeah, super short chapter. I need to get back in the groove again.**

**I wrote this so quickly I honestly have no idea how good it is. The idea suddenly popped in my head and I just typed it up.**

**Also, this chapter was written over a span of about five days. It was just sitting open on my computer, and I would come back to it every once and a while.**

**Another reason why I'm not sure if it's any good or not. I didn't binge-type it like I normally do with other chapters**

**It's a miracle it didn't get deleted, actually.**

**So, if you wanna, leave me a review! Hope you like the chapter!**

**Hey, I just wrote this.**

**And this is crazy.**

**But here's my chapter.**

**Review it, maybe?**

**...**

**Gah, sorry about that.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Hey guys.**

**OKAY I'M SURE MOST OF YOU HAVE BUT HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEW COVER ART? AND READ THE FIRST OFFICIAL CHAPTER OF MARK OF ATHENA? I HAAAVVVEEEEE!**

**They posted it on the official Percy Jackson Facebook page if you haven't seen/read either. It's so good! GAH!**

**Alright, now with that out of the way, I just want to say that this is just a simple filler chapter. Nothing exciting really happens, but it's Annabeth, so...she rocks.**

**And...yeah. That's pretty much it. Cool.**

**Okay, you can start reading the real thing now.**

I waited a bit longer for the sun to come up before I would climb out.

When I finally decided it was time to try climbing up the hill, I walked around and picked up all of my supplies that I had flung all over the ground during my spider episode.

I grabbed my bedroll, grimacing as I shook the spider webs off of it, and then gingerly rolled it up and attached it to my backpack. I shoved smashed granola bars into the pack as well, and the flashlight. What was left of the sugar cubes for Blackjack was now glittery dust lining the bottom.

I took one last look around the gulch and when I decided I grabbed everything worth saving (Grover would probably kill me that I left some wrappers down there. What he doesn't know won't hurt him.) I turned to face the weeds jutting out of the sides.

If I had my adrenaline rush from the night before, this looked be possible. But now I wasn't so sure.

"Blackjack? You up there?" I yelled up the side.

I heard a responding whinny. He probably didn't even know what happened to me last night.

"Okay. Uh, I'm going to try and get out of here."

My mind flashed to an image of the climbing wall at Camp. At least this hill didn't have lava rolling down the side.

I looked up the side of the hill. It was about thirty to forty feet high before it crested.

I checked to make sure my pack was on tightly, my hat wasn't going anywhere, and that I had my knife.

_You're stalling_, I thought to myself.

I scowled and grabbed the closest weed.

"Ah!" I gasped in pain and jerked my hand back, staring at a red welt across my hand.

Stinging nettle. Perfect. First spider bites, and then a stupid plant.

_Darn, I left my good pair of gloves at Camp_, I thought sarcastically.

I pulled out an extra t-shirt from the backpack and my knife from the sheath. I shoved my knife through one of the sleeves and ripped it off, and then the other. My t-shirt was now a tank top.

I took the ripped sleeves and wrapped one around each hand, and then tentatively grasped the weed again.

I didn't feel anything, thank the gods. I probably would have thrown my backpack in anger if I got hurt again.

I braced one foot against the dirt, searching for a foothold. I reached my other hand up and grabbed another plant, and gently pulled myself up, one foot dangling in the air. I put both feet on the hill and started to carefully scale the hill.

At one terrifying instant, the shirt-gloves slipped on a weed and my left arm flailed in the air and my foot slid several inches on the dirt. I was about two-thirds up, and I definitely did not want to fall from this height.

I grunted in pain as I instinctively grabbed the weed again, only to sting my other hand in the process.

Ignoring my screaming muscles and my throbbing hands, I scaled up the hill.

My head poked over the edge, and I saw Blackjack grazing on some grass. I put my arms on the ground and tried to get my feet over.

They suddenly slipped and I was hanging over empty space, my feet scrabbling against the hill. Panic filled me.

"Augh!" I screamed, feeling my arms losing their strength.

Just as I was about to topple over the edge, I felt myself get hoisted up and I sprawled on the ground, breathing heavily.

Blackjack had grabbed my backpack with his teeth and had pulled me over.

I used my arms to push myself up, and they trembled as I got my feet underneath me. I staggered and fell against Blackjack.

Once I got my strength back, I pushed off of Blackjack quickly. He smelled.

"Okay, now that I've gotten out of that—" I kicked a rock over the edge, watching in satisfaction "—we need to figure out where we are. Do you think there's enough room for you to fly above these trees?"

He bobbed his head and I clumsily climbed on his back. He spread his wings, and after a few heart-stopping moments where we almost hit a few trees, we broke free.

I swiveled around on his back, looking around. I saw the sun slowly climbing the sky, which meant that that direction was east, toward home. I wanted to go west, to California.

I traced the path of the sun with my finger, and ended up with the general direction of west.

I pointed so Blackjack could see my finger.

"That way," I said.

**The end. Short and sweet.**

**Oh! Not the end of the story, just the chapter. Don't fret.**

**Let me know what you thought of the official first chapter of Mark of Athena! Did you like it? Hate it? So-so? Rick Riordan never faileth?**

**What about the cover art, eh? Super cool! I especially like the bit with the owl in the background.**

**I JUST LOVE ALL OF IT!**

***SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT***

**Disappointed about ex-nay on the Percabeth reunion? _I was!_**

***grumble grumble* stupid year go faster so i know what happens next *anger and more grumbling***

**I CANNOT WAIT FOR OCTOBER 2ND.**

**Well, I think that settles it.**

**Leave me a review, about the MoA chapter, my chapter, or both! Whatever makes you happy :)**

**OKAY BYE.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Yay! A new update.**

**Okay, this chapter is insane. Just saying. I had SO much fun writing it, and I hope you enjoy it, too. This is kindof a makeup for the slight boringness of the previous chapter.**

**I hope you guys like it :)**

My butt and thighs were screaming in pain. I had been sitting on Blackjack, without a saddle, I might add, for hours straight. The sun was nearly setting before we landed.  
**  
**We had left the forest behind us and soared over several small towns on the outskirts of the trees before landing so I could get some food. I found out that we were somewhere near the border of Colorado and Utah. When I spotted a town with a chain restaurant, I told him to land as fast as he could. I was tired of granola bars.  
**  
**We nearly gave some pigeons a heart attack when Blackjack not-so-gracefully landed behind a fast-food restaurant. I almost fell on my face when I managed to swing my stiff leg over his back to get off. Pigeons squawked indignantly as I accidentally kicked a box of french fries down the street.  
**  
**I caught my balance and then patted his neck sympathetically.  
**  
****"**I'm sorry you've been working so hard. Let me see if I can get you some apple slices, okay?"  
**  
**He snorted, looking annoyed.  
**  
****"**Hey, the sugar cubes are all smashed, so you'll have to make do," I told him.  
**  
**I stretched out my legs and when I decided I could look semi-normal when walking, I strode inside the restaurant, pulling out a wad of cash from my pocket.  
**  
**I took a quick glance around the restaurant for anything suspicious, but everything looked okay to me. My stomach growled when it smelled the hot fries and hamburgers, distracting me from checking out the scene.  
**  
**I wound my way through the chairs and got in line at the register. There were several people ahead of me, and the line was moving painfully slow. I took my place behind a woman wearing a snakeskin belt with a matching purse and pumps.  
**  
**She turned around when I stood behind her and gave me a grimace of a smile. I smiled tentatively back at her. She was wearing massive designer sunglasses that were heavily tinted so I couldn't see her eyes.  
**  
**I tore my gaze away from the sunglasses and started reading what was on the menu. The line moved forward, so there was one person ahead of me and the snake-lady. I decided to buy a large cheeseburger with a matching fries and drink, and I pulled out my money, fingering through it to pull out the total.  
**  
****"**I'm _so _hungry," the snake-lady said. I looked at her, not sure if she was talking to me or not. She was. And she was still smiling in a crazed way.  
**  
****"**Um, uh-huh," I muttered.  
**  
****"**Next!" the guy at the register called.  
**  
**The woman slid forward.  
**  
****"**What can I get for you?" he asked her.  
**  
****"**Yes, I would like a medium drink, and a kids meal," she said.  
**  
**The guy did a double take and looked around her, seeing if she had any kids that he couldn't see.  
**  
****"**I'm sorry, the kids meal is for twelve and under," he said.  
**  
**I saw her body tense up. She leaned forward onto the counter and slid her sunglasses down her nose. I couldn't see anything, but the cashier sure did.  
**  
****"**Are you _sure _about that?" she asked sweetly.  
**  
**He flushed pale and staggered backwards.  
**  
****"**U-um, I'll get that for you," he stammered.**  
****  
"**Thanks," she said, a smile in her voice. She pushed the sunglasses up and stepped aside, allowing me to order. The guy looked at me fearfully.  
**  
****"**Could I have a large cheeseburger, fries, and drink?" I said.  
**  
**I could see him relax and he punched it into the computer. "Right away," he said, his voice still trembling.  
**  
**I handed him the money and then walked over to a table, waiting for my food. The snake-lady sat down at a table near mine.  
**  
**I sat there, and a slight fear started ebbing at me. This lady was not normal. I felt like I knew who she was, but I couldn't place it at all. I felt my hand go unconsciously to my hip where my dagger was sheathed, and I tapped my fingers against it.  
**  
****"**Number 55!" a man called. "Medium drink and a kids meal."  
**  
**The woman slid her chair back and walked over to her tray, snakeskin heels clicking on the tile. When she walked back to her table, I could see drool dripping from her lips.  
**  
**Okay, that was not normal at all. I was about to leave the building when the man called my order. I quickly ran over to the counter and grabbed my food. I dumped the tray, my instincts definitely screaming at me to get out of there. I was halfway to the door when I heard an earsplitting shriek.  
**  
**I whipped around, my fries flying out of their container. I shoved the cheeseburger into my backpack, pulling out my knife faster that I had ever done before.  
**  
****"**_WHAT?_**" **the snake-lady screamed. "_What is this abomination!_**" **She brandished her miniature hamburger in the air, ketchup on her face. "This is..." she gagged. "Cow's meat! You said it was a KID'S meal! This is not _child's flesh!_**" **She let out an inhumane roar and her legs slowly morphed together, the snakeskin on her belt and shoes sliding up her legs to give her a snake's body starting at her waist. Her hair grew scraggly and her nails elongated into claws. Her face stretched out and I could see razor-sharp teeth in her mouth.  
**  
**The two men behind the counter screamed and ducked behind it as she threw her table at them, fries flying in every direction. She turned to face me, drool clearly on her face.  
**  
****"**You..." she hissed. "You look good enough to eat!"  
**  
**She lunged at me, her snake tail whipping around. I leapt out of the way and she crashed into a table, knocking her glasses aside.  
**  
**She whipped around to face me.  
**  
**She had no eyes, just empty eye sockets. I almost gagged myself, but I held my knife in front of me.**  
****  
"**You're a gorgon!" I shouted.  
**  
**She screamed in anger. "Do not compare me to those hideous beasts, daughter of Athena! I am the Lamia!"**  
**  
Her story flashed in my mind. Once a beautiful queen, she was forced to eat her own children, and became a child-eating monster with the ability to take out her eyes. Apparently, she now had a snake tail. Why Zeus allowed her to take out her eyes, I don't know.  
**  
**She leapt at me again, and I whipped out my hat, smashed it on my head and jumped out of the way just in time. She crashed into the condiments table.  
**  
**She staggered, or slithered, to her feet, uh-tail, and inhaled deeply.  
**  
****"**Just because I don't see you, demigod, doesn't mean I can't smell you." How she could see me was beyond me.  
**  
**She slowly moved towards me. I took in a deep breath.  
**  
**_Now or never_, I thought. I flung my dagger straight at her. Once it left contact of my hand, it rippled into view and hit her square in the chest. She was flung back from the force of the dagger and shrieked as she burst into yellow dust.  
**  
**I stood there, breathing heavily, and pulled off my hat. I walked over and picked up my knife, brushing off the dust. I put it in my sheath. **  
**The dust suddenly started to swirl together. I fell backwards in shock, slipping in mustard as she started to reform.  
**  
**Once her mouth came together, she started to cackle. "Clever idea, demigod, but I'm afraid that won't work. My patron has brought me back from the dead, and I intend to stay that way!" The dust rippled into her shape and she became solid.  
**  
**I was stunned.  
**  
****"**I see the shock on your face," she laughed. "You cannot defeat me!"  
**  
**She extended her claws and lunged. I couldn't get my dagger out fast enough. She knocked into me and we tumbled over chairs. She pinned my hands to my sides. Her tail curled over my legs so I wouldn't kick her off.  
**  
****"**You were a worthy opponent, but not good enough," she tsked. "Prepare to die!" She opened her mouth, and I felt like the black pits that were her eyes were the last things I would see.  
**  
**_Percy_, I thought. _I love you.  
_**  
**I closed my eyes.  
**  
**I suddenly heard her shriek and I felt her weight get thrown off of me. I sat up quickly, pulling out my knife and looked around and blinked in shock.  
**  
**Blackjack had stampeded into the demolished restaurant and had kicked her off of me. I saw her fall backwards and scream as his hooves came down and crushed her skull. She exploded into dust a second time and I ran forward, kicking around the dust. Blackjack used his wings to create wind and spread it around. For good measure, I grabbed my soda (which had somehow managed to remain untouched) and dumped it over her remains. She wasn't going to come back for a long time.  
**  
**Blackjack snorted at the dust and then looked at me.  
**  
**I rushed forward and hugged his neck.  
**  
****"**Thank you," I whispered. "I thought I was going to die."  
**  
**He whinnied softly.  
**  
****"**I almost forgot," I said, moving back. I vaulted over the counter and opened a fridge where they kept packaged apple slices. The men were nowhere in sight. They had managed to escape.  
**  
**I walked back over to him and tore open the package, holding out a slice.  
**  
****"**Here," I said, a grin on my face.

**Whoa! Was that intense or what?**

**Sorry if you thought it was graphic that Blackjack's hooves smashed her head in. I kinda felt like it was necessary, though. :/**

**Wow. My heart is still beating from writing that chapter. Whenever I write, I always get really into it. **

**Gee whiz.**

**Let me know what you think by dropping me a review! I'd really 'preciate it :)**

**I'll see all ya'll next chapitre!**

**OKAY BYE.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Hey guyth! How'th it going? **

**I feel like responding to a couple reviews right now, so you can just skip this section if you want to get to the real story. This is just another filler chapter, though, just lettin' ya know. **

**BUT...it has romance! _Squee!_  
**

**GothicPunk123: I've read your story, and it's good! Keep it up :) Update soon so I know what happens! Aw, shucks, thanks for your kind words.  
**

**Starkid Rocks: Why must it be in October? GAH! Me too about the Percabeth hints! I get what you mean about the cover art. I think it's good, but I was hoping it would be a bit different. Like, Annabeth or something. She hasn't been on a cover at all. PS. I like your name. Have you seen their show Starship? It's my favorite. (I can't remember if I already asked you that or not. Holy Musical B man came out, too!)  
**

**chocolate bunny: Thanks! I'm honored to be your favorite :) Thanks for leaving the review. It means a lot!  
**

**PercabethAndZebrasFTW: I love your Call Me, Maybe version. It was awesome. Don't worry, it's been stuck in my head for days now. Thank you for all the reviews that you leave!  
**

**Okay, you can read the real thing now.  
**

My heart wouldn't stop pounding until we left the fast-food place well beyond the horizon.

I chewed nonchalantly on my cheeseburger as the wind tried to take it out of my hands. I bounced up and down with the beat of Blackjack's wings and thought about what had happened.

The Lamia hadn't died when I killed her. Well, for about ten seconds, maybe, and somehow she was able to reform. And her patron? What was that about? She said that she was brought back from the Underworld by a patron. Unfortunately, she didn't get any more specific than that.

The sun slowly sank into the ground, and the sky blazed orange before plunging into a dark blue.

"Hey, we should find a place to stop and rest," I said, patting Blackjack's neck.

In response, he dove sharply to the ground, making my cheeseburger almost slip through my fingers, and causing me to choke in surprise.

"Hey!" I coughed. He whinnied happily in response.

He pulled smoothly out of the dive and circled around some bright orange rock. We flew underneath a massive arch and landed several yards away from it.

I shoved the rest of the burger in my mouth and dismounted, taking a look around. I walked over to the arch and ran my hand along its sandy surface. The natural architecture was incredible. The arch was gigantic, and was able to keep its shape where its center had been battered out by the elements.

"I know where we are," I told Blackjack. "We're at Arches National Park in Utah. We're just two states away from California! We're making perfect time." I resisted the urge to dance around. I didn't want to get judged by a horse.

I unrolled my pack and turned it inside out, shaking it hard, checking to see if any spiders had managed to crawl in from the night before.

Once I made sure I wouldn't share a bed with any of the disgusting things, I crawled inside. I looked over to Blackjack, who had dipped his head to the ground, breathing gently.

"Goodnight," I whispered. I rolled onto my back and stared at the Milky Way. The stars were gorgeous, and I could pick out constellations. Orion, the Big Dipper, the Huntress. Seeing the imprint of Zoe in the night sky helped me fall asleep peacefully, thinking of Percy.

* * *

The weight slammed down on my shoulders and I screamed in agony. My body was on fire. Never had I felt pain like this. I nearly fell, and my legs vibrated spastically underneath me.

Luke stood up and dusted off his pants. He started to walk away.

"_Luke!_" I screamed. "_Don't leave me here!_"

I shrieked in pain again.

He turned to look at me, no pity in his eyes.

"Goodbye, Annabeth," he said.

"NO!"

The weight was too much. I was going to die.

**xXx**

Our lips met. I felt fireworks. The water bubbled around us, and I knew we were safe.

My heart thundered in my chest, and I felt his calloused hand run down my cheek, and finally cupping my chin.

My arms were limp around his shoulders, and I dropped his blue cupcake at the bottom of the bubble. He had given it to me to hold while we descended in the ocean.

Our lips broke apart, but I didn't pull away. I felt his breath on my cheek. He was breathing heavily, and his heart pounded. I rested my chin on his shoulder and we embraced.

We stood there for a while, just hugging.

I fingered the gray streak in his hair. I felt him take mine. What had happened to us that day connected us even more. Gave me more of a reason to completely fall for him.

I looked down.

"Percy," I whispered in his ear.

"Hmmm," he murmured.

"I dropped your cupcake."

He pulled away and looked down. It lay abandoned on the bubble's thin membrane, the frosting splattered. He bent over to pick it up, and then took a bite.

"Still tastes good," he said over a mouthful of frosting.

"Ugh!" I cried, trying to look disgusted. But seeing him grin goofily at me, I couldn't hold my straight face. I started to laugh.

"You're disgusting," I giggled.

"But you love me!" he said, swallowing.

I looked at him and held his green eyes.

"I do."

* * *

**Yay! Dream sequence!**

**I hope you guys could get what was happening in her dreams. They were just memories. I think they're pretty straight forward. Also, I know that the dialogue isn't completely correct in her first dream. I was doing it from memory and I was to lazy to grab the book and flip to the right page. Sue me. LOLJK DON'T REALLY I'M A GOOD PERSON.  
**

**Sigh, I love Percabeth. I'm such a shipper. Sorry if it's really cheesy, but I like it :)  
**

**I just want to thank everyone who leaves me a review and favorites this story. Every email I get telling me this makes my heart do a gymnastics routine like Annabeth's. Also, I would like to thank the Academy, my mom and dad for everything they've done for me...  
**

**Please leave me a review! I have 55! That's incredible! Do you think we could make it to 60? Please? That blue button is just waiting for you to click.  
**

**OKAY, one more thing and I promise I'm done. I honestly don't know how you've guys have made it through those beginning chapters. You know, first "published" story, maybe cutting me some slack or whatever, but for those of you that have made it this far...thanks. Thank you so much. I honestly think through every chapter, editing like crazy, making sure it's good. I even edit on the site. I want to keep you guys happy. Send me suggestions, ideas! Maybe you just want to chat. I'm fine with that, too!  
**

**Actually, I have an idea for a second story...heheheh.  
**

**OKAY NOW I'M REALLY DONE I PROMISE.  
**

**OKAY BYE.  
**

**WAIT I JUST THOUGHT OF SOMETHING. This sounds like I'm ending the story with all of the A/N. I'm not. I have far to go! Don't worry.  
**

**Okay now I'm done.  
**

**OKAY REALLY BYE.  
**


	24. Chapter 24

**Hi guys! I've posted a cover for this story! All credit to the image goes to burdge-bug on deviantART. The image title is 'Get Up'.**

**Okay...wow, this chapter is...gah. My fingers were, like, shaking, as I typed it up. I don't know where the idea came from, but...**

**I'll just let you read it.**

The backs of my eyelids glowed red. I stretched out my arms and covered my eyes, groaning.

"What time is it…?" I mumbled. "Malcolm? Why didn't you wake me up?"

I tried to sit up, and my thighs screamed in pain. I gasped and fell backwards, hitting my head on rock.

"Ah!" I rubbed the back of my head and opened my eyes, blinking in the sunlight.

"Where am—?"

I gingerly sat up, trying to get past my aching legs. I looked around, taking in my surroundings.

A massive arch, sandy rock—oh, my gods! Percy! California!

I slept in!

"What time is it?"

I leapt to my feet, stumbling over the bedroll. I squinted at the bright sun. It was almost in the center of the sky. The shadows were almost gone.

"Blackjack! Oh, my gods…" I ran around, shoving everything in the pack and sloppily rolling up the bedroll. I grabbed a granola bar and stuffed it in my mouth.

"Where are you?"

I finally found him wandering around, trying to find something to eat.

"Here," I said, opening another package of apples. I did it so fast that the apple slices catapulted out of the packaging and fell to the sandy floor.

"Freaking—crap." I picked them up and dusted them off as well as I could and held them out so Blackjack could eat before we left.

He chewed slowly, watching me with an amused expression.

"Will you hurry up?"

He swallowed and stretched out his wings. I watched impatiently. He shook out his mane and flicked his tail.

"Are you finished?"

He looked at me and whinnied happily.

I climbed on his back and he waited for directions. I looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was right in the center. I slumped forward.

"I don't know which way to go," I admitted. Why didn't I bring a compass? Why didn't I mark which way west was yesterday?

"Oh, gods…"

I slid off his back and fell dejectedly to the ground.

"Why did I sleep so long? I…I'm hungry." I opened my pack and dug through it. I suddenly remembered something. I pulled out a pack of…"hot dogs!"

I busied myself with making a fire. I refused to eat them raw. Once I got a fire going, I found a stick and sharpened the end with my knife, and then impaled a hot dog on the end. I sat by the fire, roasting the 'dog. Once it was finished, I picked it off with my fingers and put the fake meat in my mouth. Delicious.

I was just about to smother the fire when I heard a strange call echo in the sky. It sounded like a bird.

Blackjack's ears twitched and he starting neighing and bucking.

"What is it?"

He rolled his eyes and tossed his head. That couldn't be good.

I ran over to the fire and chucked dirt on it and stomped it out. I was running towards Blackjack when the shriek was right behind me. I whirled and felt myself get picked up by sharp talons.

I screamed as I was lifted into the air, and soon I was dangling several hundred feet above the ground.

I looked at the bird that had carried me away. The sun glinted off of a massive metal eagle, and it had a razor-sharp beak. I could feel its talons pricking my skin, and soon I had beads of blood running down my arms.

I scrabbled for my knife, my fingers fumbling over the sheath. I tried to twist around and plunged my knife down on the clawed foot.

The knife bounced harmlessly off, vibrating so hard that it jarred my arm. I almost dropped my knife into open space.

Suddenly, we were slammed into the side, and the eagle almost dropped me. I turned my head, spitting hair out of my mouth, and saw Blackjack dive down, his hooves out, and smashed into the eagle again. The eagle gave a cry of shock and released its grip on me.

I fell into the air, spinning out of control. I tried to put my knife away, but it was no good, especially falling to what seemed your death.

I saw Blackjack fly away from the eagle and drop below me. I hit his back with a _thunk_ and he suddenly reared backwards, screaming in pain.

My knife had impaled his flank.

"Oh, gods!" I screamed. I twisted my hand in his mane and left the knife where it was, not wanting to make it worse. Blood was flowing freely.

"Try to land!" I shrieked.

I suddenly heard a scream of anger behind us. The eagle was flying towards us, murder on his metal face, and gaining every second.

Blackjacks wings started to beat slowly, and we neared a canyon wall.

I grabbed his head and yanked to the right, steering us out of the way.

The ground came closer and closer, and we were nearing freefall.

Blackjack gave one last beat of his wings before stopping all together.

We fell like a stone.

I sent a prayer to any god that would listen, any god that would give us mercy. _Please._

A burst of wind buffeted us up, and we tumbled to the sandy ground, feathers flying everywhere.

I was tangled in Blackjack's legs, and I was hit sharply in the head with his hoof. Spots flared before my eyes, but I refused to lose consciousness.

The eagle screamed.

I leapt from Blackjack's legs and, with a breaking heart, ripped the knife out of his flank. He screamed in agony.

I turned to face the eagle, which was diving towards me.

_Apollo_, I prayed fervently, _please guide my knife_.

The eagle screamed again, and I threw my dagger with all that I had.

Its aim was true. It flew inside the eagle's mouth and impaled his throat.

It shrieked in pain and fell to the ground, crashed into a boulder, and exploded.

The heat was intense, but it was gone as soon as it started.

I rushed to Blackjack, who was lying on the ground, sweating and breathing heavily.

"I'm so sorry," I cried, tears streaming down my face. "I can heal you."

My fingers trembled as I pulled out the canteen of nectar and the squares of ambrosia. I poured the nectar on his wound, which wouldn't stop bleeding, and fed him half of a square.

I watched as the wound slowly disappeared until there was only a pink scar.

I pulled out my canteen of water and drenched one of my shirts and placed it on his forehead, brushing his mane out of the way.

Blackjack looked at me and my tear-stained face and whinnied softly.

"I'm…I'm s-so sorry," I whispered. "But…you're gonna be okay. The wound is healing."

I could tell from the look of his eyes that I was forgiven.

**Good gravy.**

**What did you think of that?**

**I don't even know what to say right now.**

**Leave me a review? Sure, that works..**

**Um, okay, bye.**


	25. Chapter 25

**Happy Birthday, to me! Happy Birthday, to me! Happy Birthday, to meeeeeeee... Happy Birthday, to me! Yup, my birthday's on Father's Day.**

**And a very Happy Father's day to my dad and to all of your dads, too!**

**Okay, back to business.**

**Just a shorty short chapter for ya'll today. I would have updated sooner, but I was out of town.**

**This chapter is kinda sad. A rather emotional time for Annabeth, but she's been going through a lot.**

The _Aetos Kaukasios_, or Caucasian Eagle, I found out, was the thing that attacked us. When I left Blackjack to get some rest, I wandered over to the remains of the automaton, hoping to find my knife still intact.

As I kicked through pieces of scrap metal, I saw the symbol of Hephaestus on one of the larger chunks. A flaming hammer. That's what let me know what it was that attacked us.

I finally managed to find my knife, which had remained untouched. Maybe it was a little extra from Apollo when I prayed to him. Maybe I was just lucky.

When I picked it up, I almost dropped it. Blood was on the tip of the knife where it had stabbed Blackjack. Guilt welled up in me, and I almost started crying again. I felt horrible. I knew that he had forgiven me, but guilt still clawed its way into my heart, settling next to the black void that opened up when Percy went missing.

My heart was taking a lot of damage lately.

I quickly wiped the knife in a patch of grass that managed to grow through the cracks in the rock, making sure that it was completely clean before walking back over to Blackjack.

I checked his flank, making sure that things were healing smoothly. All that was left was a small pink scar. I guessed that it would be stiff, but he would be able to start flying again soon.

I sat down next to him. The Caucasian Eagle confused me. What was it doing attacking us? It was supposed to be in the Underworld with Prometheus.

I shuddered, thinking about the Titan War. Prometheus was set free, but as far as I knew, he'd been chained back up and returned to the Eagle.

The closest I could guess is that the Eagle knew I had started a fire. Since Prometheus gave mankind fire, I guessed that the Eagle would react to something like that. Plus, I'm a demigod, so that would give it another reason to come after us.

I sat in the sun with Blackjack for a few hours, wanting him to rest as much as possible. I felt bad that I had pushed him so far. It was selfish of me, and I didn't really think about how he was.

Another wave of guilt washed over me. I felt like I was doing everything wrong. Blackjack had saved my skin too many times to count, and I repaid him by getting him stabbed by my freaking knife. While he was saving me.

I put my face in my hands, groaning, feeling tears come to my eyes. I let them out, not holding them back. I had been put through trial after trial, and I was done. Just done. I was tired to pretending that everything was okay, and that I knew what I was doing. I was tired of leading camp while everyone was so depressed. I was tired of my heart aching every time I thought of Percy or someone mentioned his name. I was tired of holding back my tears when I just wanted to cry.

I don't know how long I cried. I knew that Blackjack woke up, because he leaned his nose against me as comfort.

Suddenly, I heard someone clear their throat awkwardly.

My hand flew to my dagger and I jerked my head up, tears still running down my face. I pointed my dagger at a surprised-looking, floating head of Butch.

"Butch!" I cried wetly, wiping my face.

"Um...hi, Annabeth," he said, looking uncomfortable. "Are you...okay?"

"I'm fine," I said thickly. "What is it?"

He looked at me, his awkward expression changing softly. "What happened?"

"I just...I'm-"

"If you don't want to tell me, that's fine. I don't mind," he said gently.

I nodded. "Is everything okay at camp?"

He looked at me a bit more before saying, "They're back."

**Weyell, it looks like Jason, Piper, and Leo are back from their quest!**

**Consider this chapter a birthday present from me to you :) Even if it is...sad.**

**I'll see ya'll next time!**

**OKAY BYE.**

**P.S. I might update again today, but I'm not sure. No promises.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Hey guys...**

**Yeah, I realize it's been a long time. About two weeks of nothing, and I apologize! After my birthday, that whole week I was super busy with I don't even remember what. And then, after that, the next week I left to go on something called EFY (Especially for Youth). It's where you go to a church camp for a week and meet other people with the same faith as you. One of the best experiences of my life.**

**ANYWAY, enough about that. I'm not preaching. I'm back and ready to write! WOO. Let's get it started, shall we? Since I held out on you for a while, here's a long chapter for all ya'll.**

**Let it commence.**

"They're back? What do you mean, 'they're back'?" I snapped, suddenly turning angry.

"Jason, Piper, and Leo just showed up on the tables during lunch. They're a mess. We're just waiting for you and Rachel to get back to camp before we can talk about what they did," Butch said.

I jumped to my feet and started pacing, shaking my head. "No, no, no-no-no-no! They can't be back..." I muttered.

"Why not? They're back by the solstice. Honestly, I thought they would be dead by now. It's amazing."

I rounded on him. "I haven't found Percy, that's why! He's still gone, and I am in freaking Utah! I went all this way for nothing." I started to sob dryly, sitting down hard.

Butch looked sympathetic, and a bit uncomfortable. "Annabeth...we're all upset that he's gone. But I have a feeling that these guys might know something about Percy's disappearance. I just...know they do." He cleared his throat. "Blackjack can get you back quickly with his travel-warp. If he isn't too exhausted, that is."

His words reassured me, and I took a deep breath. "I...I'm sorry. I've just been through a lot, and I took it out on you."

He nodded. "We've all been through a lot, Annabeth. But there's no need to worry. We'll find Percy."

I smiled weakly. "Thanks, Butch. You've helped me a ton. I appreciate it. I'll be back soon."

He smiled back and I waved my hand through the image, breaking the mist apart.

I turned and faced Blackjack, who had stood up. "Are you ready to get back?"

He flicked his tail in response.

I scowled at him. "You don't need to act like that. What if I gave you a box of sugar cubes, and maybe some apples when we get back. Would you do it then?"

He trotted over and stared at me.

"Okay, fine, no apples."

He snorted happily and, after checking to make sure I wasn't leaving anything behind, clambered on his back. As he bounded forward and snapped his wings out, catching to the air and taking off. I looked behind me, spitting hair out of my mouth, and glanced at the blackened area where the Eagle had exploded.

I blinked a couple times, and then turned away from it, leaving it behind me.

I patted his neck. "Hey, buddy, I'm thinking that you've been working hard. We can do the travel thing tomorrow. We can stop at a store and I can buy you those sugar cubes today."

He neighed happily and he beat his wings harder until we broke above the line of clouds in the sky. The sun rays bounced off the top of the clouds, and the sky was impossibly blue. Blackjack's hooves skimmed the top of the clouds, and I lifted my hands up in the air, smiling like a lunatic.

I'd been riding an emotional roller coaster, and I finally decided that I was getting off. I was done being sad. A determined feeling crept into my heart and I punched the air and let out a scream.

I couldn't wait to get back to camp.

**xXx**

We were back in the forest. I set up a campfire and leaned against Blackjack, handing him sugar cubes in my hand.

I started to think about what Jason might have discovered while he was gone. Did he know where Percy was? Maybe he knew about that ruined house in California. He could confirm that it was related to Percy in some way and settle my suspicions.

Blackjack interrupted me by nosing my hand, looking for more cubes.

"Whoa, boy. I'm not letting you get a stomach ache because you ate too many. I'll give you more tomorrow."

He stared at me, and then flopped his head down on the ground, closing his eyes.

"G'night," I muttered, putting my head on his side, and slowly closed my eyes.

* * *

I flicked the reigns of the chariot, and it lurched ahead, leaving my stomach behind. We were about to round the last corner when I heard a small _thunk_of something landing in the chariot.

"Percy!" I yelled, not wanting to take my eyes off the track.

He took his sword and flipped the Greek fire out of the chariot, flicking it over to the Hephaestus chariot. The driver yelped and dove out right as it exploded.

I yanked the reigns to the side, making the horses skitter and make the final turn to the finish line. We crossed and the crowd roared.

When the chariot skidded to a halt, everyone jumped off the stands and mobbed us.

"Hold up!" I shouted, so everyone could hear me. "Listen! It wasn't just us! We couldn't have done it without somebody else! We couldn't have won this race or gotten the Fleece or saved Grover or anything! We owe our lives to Tyson, Percy's..."

"Brother!" Percy shouted. "Tyson, my baby brother."

The crowd cheered, and heart pounding nervously in my chest, I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, my lips tingling. Blush flooded Percy's cheeks, and he was grinning. The crowd roared even louder, and we were lifted up on their shoulders.

**xXx**

"Annabeth!" Percy yelled in my ear.

I clamped an invisible hand on his mouth, and his face looked shocked. "Shh!" I hissed. "Do you want to get us killed?" I yanked him behind a bronze cauldron.

He groped around with his hand, feeling for my head, and pulled off my hat. I scowled at him. "Percy, what is your problem?"

"We're going to have company!" he whispered hurriedly. He told me about the monster orientation class. I was shocked.

"So that's what they are," I muttered. "Telkhines. I should've known. They're making...Well, look."

We peeked over the edge of the cauldron.

"What _is _that?" Percy exclaimed.

I shook my head. "They keep talking about fusing metals. I wonder-"

"They were talking about the greatest Titan weapon. And they...they said they made my father's trident," Percy said.

"The telkhines betrayed the gods. They were practicing dark magic. I don't know what, exactly, but Zeus banished them to Tartarus."

"With Kronos."

I nodded. "We have to get out-"

The classroom door exploded, and young telkhines poured out, looking confused.

"Put your cap back on! Get out!" Percy yelled.

"What?" I shrieked, scared. "No! I'm not leaving you!"

"I've got a plan. I'll distract them. You can use the metal spider-maybe it'll lead you back to Hephaestus. You have to tell him what's going on."

"But you'll be killed!" I cried, tears pricking my eyes.

"I'll be fine. Besides, we've got no choice."

I glared at him angrily. Then, I did something unexpected. I leaned forward, eyes closing, and kissed him on the lips. I felt him relax slightly underneath my lips, and I pulled away.

"Be careful, Seaweed Brain," I murmured, staring at the dumbfounded expression on his face, and slipped on my cap, vanishing. I lurched away from him and ran down the catwalk, tears streaming down my face, my fingers touching my lips.

* * *

I blearily blinked my eyes awake, and shadows from leaves fluttered across my face. I stretched, popped my back, and sat up.

The fire had gone out during the night, leaving charred remains of smoking wood. I nudged Blackjack while stuffing some beef jerky I'd picked up from the store in my mouth.

"Hey, wake up. We've got to get back to camp today."

He didn't move.

Rolling my eyes, I pulled out a sugar cube and waved it in front of his nose. His eyes snapped open, and, like a vacuum, sucked up the sugar cube.

"Ha ha," I laughed sarcastically. "Come on. Get some food and let's go."

He stood up and stretched his legs, and then trotted around, looking for a good patch of grass to eat.

When he finished, I had stamped on the fire and was waiting for him. He walked over slowly and yawned, shaking his mane.

"You always know how to irritate me," I told him, hoisting myself on his back.

Once finding a good opening for us to leave the blanket of trees above us, we were soon soaring through the sky.

"Are you ready to do your thing?" I asked him.

He didn't answer, so I took it as a yes.

I twisted my hands through his mane and clenched my feet against his side.

"Okay, I'm ready!" I shouted, squeezing my eyes shut.

I felt him put on a burst of speed, and I felt like I was being shoved through a tube, my stomach flipping over itself.

The sensation passed slowly, and when I cracked open my eyes, I saw him circling over Camp Half-Blood stables.

"You did it," I gasped, sucking in air.

He was beating his wings weakly and he landed sloppily.

Horns started to blare, and I heard people yelling at each other, and soon kids in orange t-shirts had rushed over to us.

"Annabeth! You're back!"

"Percy! Where is he?"

"I'll tell Chiron you're here!"

"Do you know where he is?"

"Leo threw up in the burnt offerings!"

I jumped off Blackjack and shoved through the crowd, leading him back to his stables. He entered gratefully, and after giving him a couple more sugar cubes, practically collapsed on the ground.

Leaving him feeling comfortable, I was mobbed again by campers.

Suddenly, Piper appeared at my elbow. "Come on, I'll take you away from this. You've got to make it to the meeting. Everyone's waiting for you."

She grabbed my hand and towed me away, leaving behind dissatisfied campers.

"I've got to go get Jason. Rachel is here, too. Just head to the meeting," she said, and walked off towards the Zeus cabin.

Brushing my hair back into a ponytail, I walked inside the Big House and sat down in an empty chair around the Ping-Pong table. Everyone looked at me, some sympathetic, some expecting something. Pulling out my knife and twirling it my hands, I ignored them and ran the blade under my fingernails.

Jason, Piper, and Leo came in and took the last seats. I glanced up, staring at him, almost trying to extract information out of him.

"Let's come to order," Chiron said. "Lou Ellen, please give Miranda her nose back. Travis, if you'd kindly extinguish the flaming Ping-Pong ball, and Butch, I think twenty pencils is really too many for any human nostril. Thank you. Now, as you can see, Jason, Piper, and Leo have returned successfully...more or less. Some of you have heard parts of their story, but I will let them fill you in."

Everyone shifted their gaze to Jason, who cleared his throat and began telling his story. He talked about Festus, and Boreas, the Cyclopes, Medea, King Midas, finding Thalia and visiting Aeolus, and finally the fight on Mount Diablo and a ruined house.

My heart skipped a beat when he mentioned it, but I didn't say anything.

He finally ended with Hera's visit right before the meeting, saying that there is another group of demigods...following Roman tradition.

"So Hera was _here_," I said. "Talking to you."

He nodded. "Look, I'm not saying I trust her-"

"That's smart," I interrupted.

"-but she isn't making this up about another group of demigods. That's where I come from."

Everything suddenly fell into place-the reason that Jason knew the gods, but in their Roman form, and why he could speak Latin, and how he had a coin that could turn into a sword. The burn marks on his arm with the Roman motto.

"Romans," Clarisse said, chucking a Snausage to Seymour. "You expect us to believe there's another camp with demigods, but they follow the Roman forms of the gods. And we've never heard of them."

"The gods have kept the two groups apart," Piper said, "because every time they see each other, they try to kill each other."

"I can respect that," Clarisse said. "Still, why haven't we ever run across each other on quests?"

"Oh, yes," Chiron said, looking sad. "You have, many times. It's always a tragedy, and always the gods do their best to wipe clean the memories of those involved. The rivalry goes all the way back to the Trojan War, Clarisse. The Greeks invaded Troy and burned it to the ground. The Trojan hero Aeneas escaped, and eventually made his way to Italy, where he founded the race that would someday become Rome. The Romans grew more and more powerful, worshiping the same gods but under different names, and with slightly different personalities."

"More warlike," Jason said. "More united. More about expansion, conquest, and discipline."

"Yuck," Travis gagged.

Mostly everyone looked uncomfortable about the idea, but Clarisse shrugged.

I put my knife on the table and started twirling it around. "And the Romans hated the Greeks," I put in. "They took revenge when they had conquered the Greek isles, and made them part of the Roman Empire."

"Not exactly _hated _them," Jason said. "The Romans admired Greek culture, and were a little jealous. In return, the Greeks thought the Romans were barbarians, but they respected their military power. So during Roman times, demigods started to divide-either Greek or Roman."

"And it's been that way ever since," I guessed. "But this is crazy. Chiron, where were the Romans during the Titan War? Didn't they want to help?"

Chiron tugged at his beard. "They _did _help, Annabeth. While you and Percy were leading the battle to save Manhattan, who do you think conquered Mount Othrys, the Titans' base in California?"

"Hold on," Travis said. "You said Mount Othrys just crumbled when we beat Kronos."

"No," Jason said. His eyes flashed in remembrance. "It didn't just fall. We destroyed their palace. I defeated the Titan Krios myself."

California...I knew there was something..._off_...about that place. Especially around... "The Bay Area. we demigods were always told to stay away from it because Mount Othrys was there. But that wasn't the only reason, was it? The Roman camp-it's got to be somewhere near San Francisco. I bet it was put there to keep watch over the Titans' territory. Where is it?"

Chiron shifted uncomfortably in his wheelchair. "I cannot say. Honestly, even _I _have never been trusted with that information. My counterpart, Lupa, is not exactly the sharing type. Jason's memory, too, has been burned away."

"The camp's heavily veiled with magic," Jason said. "And heavily guarded. We could search for years and never find it."

Rachel laced her fingers together. "But you'll try, won't you? You'll build Leo's boat, the _Argo II_. And before you make for Greece, you'll sail for the Roman camp. you'll need their help to confront the giants."

"Bad plan," Clarisse warned. "If those Romans see a warship coming, they'll assume we're attacking."

"You're probably right," Jason agreed. "But we have to try. I was sent here to learn about Camp Half-Blood, to try to convince you the two camps don't have to be enemies. A peace offering."

"Hmm," Rachel murmured. "Because Hera is convinced we need both camps to win the war with the giants. Seven heroes of Olympus-some Greek, some Roman."

I nodded, thinking hard. "Your Great Prophecy-what's the last line?"

"_And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death_."

"Gaea has opened the Doors of Death," Annabeth said. "She's letting out the worst villains of the Underworld to fight us. Medea, Midas-" _The Lamia_, I thought. "-there'll be more, I'm sure. Maybe the line means that the Roman and Greek demigods will unite, and find the doors, and close them."

"Or it could mean they fight each other at the doors of death," Clarisse pointed out. "It doesn't say we'll cooperate."

Everyone fell silent, and I started to think hard. Jason mentioned a peace offering. And if he's the leader of the Roman camp-

"I'm going," I almost shouted. "Jason, when you get this ship built, let me go with you."

Comprehension dawned on his face. "I was hoping you'd offer," he said. "You of all people-we'll need you."

"Wait." Leo frowned. "I mean, that's cool with me and all. But why Annabeth of all people?"

I looked at Jason, and I knew we were thinking the exact same thing. The same horrible thing.

"Hera said my coming here was an exchange of leaders," Jason said. "A way for the two camps to learn of each others existence."

"Yeah?" Leo said. "So?"

"An exchange goes two ways," Jason said. "When I got here, my memory was wiped. I didn't know who I was or where I belonged. Fortunately, you guys took me in and I found a new home. I know you're not my enemy. But the Roman camp-they're not so friendly. You prove your worth quickly, or you don't survive. They may not be so nice to him, and if they learn where he comes from, he's going to be in serious trouble."

"Him?" Leo asked. "Who are you talking about?"

"My boyfriend," I said grimly. "He disappeared around the same time Jason appeared. If Jason came to Camp Half-Blood-"

"Exactly," Jason said, nodding. "Percy Jackson is at the other camp, and he probably doesn't even remember who he is."

**Yay! Recycled cliff hanger!** **I don't know. I really couldn't find a good place to cut this off, and anyways, I promised you a long chapter!**

**Thank you to everyone who follow this story and added it to their favorites list. All ya'll are just incredible, and super nice, too!**

**Okay, this isn't even that awesome, but when I uploaded this with out all of the A/N, it was 3,000 words exactly! For some reason, it just made me happy.**

**Alrighty bo-bighty slo-vighty, drop me a review! Tell me what you think.**

**TRIVIA QUESTION JUST BECAUSE I WANT TO:**

**Who exactly is the last Olympian?**

**Leave your answer in the reviews or private message me! I'll mention your name if you get it right. **

**Okay, I think that settles it. Until next time!**

**OKAY BYE.**


	27. Chapter 27

**Hey guys! Thank you for everyone who answered correctly to my lame question! The answer was Hestia, and you all got it right! Maybe I should do a harder question this time...**

**A wonderful shout out to **PercabethAndZebrasFTW, WisestOwl, PercyplusAnnabeth, PercyJacksonAddict, kkawesome101, Headintheclouds818, Anna575, Starkid Rocks, jayebirdgirl**, and a Guest for reviewing! Sorry, Guest, I don't really know who you are, but thanks for reviewing anyway :)**

**Oh, and a very late Happy Birthday to **trustingHim17**! Birthdays on the 17th totally rock. I hope yours was as amazing as mine was.**

**On with the show.**

Travis, who was gulping juice at the time, spewed it out all over the Ping-Pong table.

"He WHAT?" he choked.

Jason nodded. "He's just like me. Taken from his home and dumped to a new one with absolutely no memory and no idea how he got there."

My heart suddenly constricted, as if someone had clenched a fist around it. Something just dawned on me.

"Jason...can you remember anyone from your camp...at all? Any faces? Names?"

His face softened. "At the beginning on the bus, no. I was lost and confused and couldn't remember a thing. But, since I've been here for a while, and Hera has returned some of my memories, I can remember faces. Peoples names. I just don't know how Percy might be." He took a breath. "But, from what I can guess, he won't remember anyone," he said gently. I could tell that by _anyone_, he meant _you_.

I nodded. I was half expecting the words, but each one felt like a punch to the stomach.

Jason saw the look on my face. "Don't completely believe my words. I could be wrong," he said quickly.

"No, it's okay. If he's not going to remember...me...then I should be prepared for the worst. Best not to get my hopes up."

"Wait," Travis said. "So does that mean that he won't remember the time Connor and I took his underwater plants? Or TPed his cabin? Because he threatened to kill us about that, and I really don't want to die."

I knew that Travis was just saying that to lighten the mood, but everyone else just scowled at him.

Chiron cleared his throat. "Leo, we'll need you to get started immediately on the ship. If we have a lead on Percy's location, we need to get there as soon as possible. Annabeth, IM Grover and tell him to return to camp quickly. We'll need him to try even harder to connect with Percy via the empathy link. And please tell Tyson to start investigating the Bay Area. He can take Mrs. O'Leary. All of you will be taking shifts in assisting Leo with the boat."

We all nodded.

"So," Leo said, rubbing his hands together, "does this mean that we're done? Because I've got to get crack-a-lackin."

"Yes, I believe that this meeting has concluded. You are dismissed."

I shoved my chair back and was the first person to leave the Big House. I walked over to a private spot where some sprinklers where in the strawberry fields, and tossed a golden _drachma_ in the mist.

"Oh, Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering."

The mist swallowed the _drachma_ and Grover wavered into view. He had his back to me, sitting on a log, eating a tin can.

"Grover," I said softly, not wanting to freak him out. He didn't move, still chewing.

Rolling my eyes, I shouted, "Grover!"

He jumped a foot in the air and fell off the log. Scrambling up, he whipped around, leaves in his hair and part of the can sticking out of his mouth.

Seeing me, he spit the can out. "Annabeth!"

"What are you doing?"

"Uh, eating?" he said.

I scowled.

"Hey, don't give me that look. Satyrs have to eat, too!"

Seeing his indignant face and how ridiculous he looked with leaves in his hair, I started to laugh. Then I couldn't stop. I clutched my stomach, gasping for air as I cracked up.

"Ha, ha. Ha. Um, what did I say?"

I held up my hand, trying to control my breathing.

"S-Sorry," I wheezed. "It's just...I haven't seen something so funny in my life!" I started to laugh again.

"Okay, I think you've finally hit your breaking point, Annabeth. This isn't funny!" Grover said, crossing his arms.

"Okay, okay-" I sucked in air. "-I'm done, I promise." I tried to make my face look as serious as possible. "Chiron told me to talk to you."

"Uh huh..." Grover pressed.

"You need to come back to camp now. We've got a lead on where Percy is, so we need you here to keep trying your empathy link."

Grover's face lit up. "Really? That's great!"

I shook my head. "That's not all. There's...a problem."

"What is it?"

I sighed inwardly. "He's...lost his memory." Pain racked my chest when I said the words aloud.

He gaped at me. "Ha ha, very funny Annabeth. You got me."

"No. I'm serious. It's gone. Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

"He won't remember a thing. You? Me? Tyson?"

"Jason says so. He's at a Roman Camp in California where Jason's from. Jason says they can be bad news. That's why we need you to try the empathy link ASAP."

Grover nodded. "I'll be home faster than you can say _enchilada_."

I smiled. "Thanks, Grover."

**Filler chapter, filler chapter. I love filler chapters.**

**Grover is such an awesome character. He's such an awesome guy to write. Great sense of humor :'D *wipes tear***

**TRIVIA QUESTION TIME:**

**Name one thing Hermes is the god of BESIDES thieves.**

**Leave your answer in the reviews!**

**Until next time, my dearest readers. Until next time.**

**OKAY BYE.**


	28. AUTHOR'S NOTE REGARDING THE SEQUEL

**ALERT: THIS IS NOT A NEW CHAPTER.**

**Okay, guys. This is it. Ending the story.**

**I'm thinking that this will be one of the last chapters, if not the last one before my sequel. I'm already thinking and planning the sequel out, and I feel like I can't write an Annabeth narrative about working on the **_**Argo II **_**for six months. Too boring, too long, too much information. So what will happen is maybe the last chapter doing a time hop to when the ship is/nearly complete, and then the sequel will start from there.**

**I'm also going to say that the sequel is NOT going to be my take on the Mark of Athena. I've said this before, but I think that there are enough MoA stories on Fanfiction, and I'd rather just leave Rick Riordan to it. Not that I don't like the MoA stories! I've read many, and they're all fantastic. I just don't want it to be another one that won't get read, and be lost in the FF archives or whatever.**

**Try to think of my sequel as something that happens before the seven demigods leave for Greece and Rome. The sequel is just a rough draft in my mind right now, but I think I have a pretty good plot coming out. At least, I have the beginning figured out :)**

**I don't really know when I'll post the sequel, but, when I post the first chapter or prologue (for those of you following this story), I'll put an alert on Missing if you want to continue reading Annabeth and Percy's adventures.**

**Thank you everyone for all of the support and kind reviews that I've received! Getting all of those reviews just helps me stay motivated and being excited to release the next chapter. I'll leave the official goodbye at the end of the story, since it's not quite finished yet, but I would just say that all of you are amazing.**

**I'll leave my Academy Award speech for later. Keep your eyes open for the next chapter in Missing, and the beginning of the sequel! I'm hoping to post it before the summer is over. **

**Thank you, guys :)**

**P.S. I'll give you a hint about the sequel just because I want to be mean and make you hang on a cliffhanger. **

**Squee! I'm so excited!**

**Okay, are you ready?**

**Lethe.**


	29. Chapter 28

**Well, guys. The end is here.**

**Sigh...**

**I'm not too sad, though. I've completely solidified the plot for the sequel, _maybe_ release the title to you, and will be able to get started on it quickly. I might have the first chapter or prologue up by next week or sooner!**

**I will be sad that this story is over :( I've had SO much fun writing it, and bringing it to the end seemed like it would never happen, but here it is.**

**I'll just let you read now.**

**a;slkdghas;ldkf**

_Six Months Late__r_

I brushed my hair back into a ponytail at the top of my head and pulled out my duffel bag. Grabbing the necessities from my drawers, I stuffed the bag with jeans, shirts, and underwear. Zipping it closed, I dropped it on my bed and picked up my backpack. I placed in an extra belt and sheath for my knife, a jacket, and the laptop that Daedalus had given to me. I was about to sling it on my shoulder when something caught the corner of my eye.

It was the picture of me and Percy that used to hang up in Chiron's office. He had given it to me a couple weeks ago. I picked up the frame, and sitting back on my haunches, gazed at the picture. I ran a finger down Percy's face and, blinking back tears, smiled.

"I'll see you soon, Percy."

Pain racked my chest. It'd been six months. Six months since I'd seen Percy in person. How I've made it this far, I had no idea. The time seemed endless, and now that the day to leave for Camp Jupiter had arrived, I felt almost in denial. It seemed almost too good to be true.

The door to the Athena cabin banged open and I jumped. Turning, I saw Malcolm standing in the doorframe.

"Annabeth, the ship is ready. They're waiting for you."

I gently placed the photo in my backpack underneath the jacket, and after checking to make sure I had my knife and my hat, swung it on my shoulder.

"I'm done."

Malcolm grabbed the duffel bag from my bed and helped me carry it outside. As I walked through the crowd of people who had gathered around the ship, several people jostled me and patted me on the back.

"Here we are, Annabeth."

"You'll be seeing Percy soon!"

"Be safe!"

Leo was standing on the deck, absentmindedly rubbing his hand on the head of Festus and snapping his fingers, making flames appear. Piper and Jason were also on the deck talking to each other. Gleeson Hedge was nowhere in sight. Probably down at the buffet table that Leo had set up, stuffing his face.

Chiron stood at the base of the plank to get on the ship. As I arrived, he smiled warmly.

"The time has come."

I nodded, feeling excited. In just a few hours, I would be with Percy again, and hopefully negotiating with the people from Camp Jupiter. I had already had a small speech memorized to say when we arrived.

I grinned back. "I'm ready."

He patted my back and gestured me up the plank. As I climbed the plank, Chiron started to speak.

"Demigods! The time has come for us to send our delegated campers to the Roman Camp Jupiter, where we can hopefully speak to them in peace and send the seven chosen demigods to Greece. May the gods send blessings to those from Camp Half-Blood."

The crowd cheered and several waved.

As I made it to the top of the deck, Leo and Jason ran forward and grabbed the top of the plank and heaved it up.

"Why didn't I build a retractable escalator?" Leo grunted as he dropped it on the ground. "Gah! My foot!"

Rolling her eyes, Piper walked over and lifted the plank off of Leo's foot, who grabbed it and started hopping around and yelling curse words.

"Calm down, it's just a stubbed toe," Piper scolded. In response, Leo howled even louder.

"Dude, we've got to get going," Jason said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Fine, let the cripple drive the flying boat," Leo complained, gingerly putting his foot on the floor.

"You're the only one who knows how!"

"Good point."

As Leo dramatically hobbled off towards the controls, I gripped my hands on the railing. The boat lurched off the ground, and the crowd started yelling.

Soon we were in the air and above the trees. As we were gaining height, Piper walked over to me.

"Hey, you okay?"

I shrugged. The ecstasy from first boarding the ship was quickly fading, replaced by a horrible feeling of nervousness.

"We're going to get your boyfriend! You're going to see him again! Wouldn't you get excited?"

"I am...I just can't stop thinking about what Jason said to me."

"Oh, that? How he won't remember you? Don't try to take him to seriously. He's too serious for his own good."

I sighed. "You should start practicing your lines. I need to get my nervous energy out somehow. I'll be in the miniature arena."

Piper looked like she still wanted to talk, but she let it go. I brushed past her and headed to the downstairs.

I poked my head inside the control room. Leo was dancing around the room - completely forgetting about his foot - to a CD he had put in the player and shaking his Wii remotes that controlled the sails. Rolling my eyes, I left and made it to the arena.

Abandoning my knife, I picked up a short sword and practiced swinging it around. I knew that my sword skills could never amount to Percy's, but I was still pretty good.

I placed some earbuds in my ears to drown out the pounding of my nervous heart and started swinging and hacking at a dummy.

I had no idea how long I was down there. I knew that the amount of time to get from New York to California would be short because of the flying ship, but the time passed way too quickly.

What felt like too soon, Piper came in.

"Annabeth, we're almost there. You need to come up on the deck."

_To Be Continued..._

**And now we're done. :(**_  
_

**I'm going to be honest with you. I'm horrible at ending stories, especially ones that include sequels. I'm really sorry that the end is lame. Just be happy to know that the sequel is in progress. So, really, the story isn't over at all! *fake optimism***

**And now, it's time for the thank yous. The official ones. So this author's note is going to be really long.**

**First, to my reviewers. All of you. Even though I'm sure it only took about fifteen seconds to write and submit, all of you were incredibly kind and supportive. Every review made me so happy, and I want to personally thank you by name.**

**A very special thanks to:**

Cookie my life

Starkid Rocks **(I agree)****  
**

lionDreamerAKAfan

THE-MAN-IN-THE-CORNER

Daughter of Magic

PercyplusAnnabeth **(Favorite pairing :])**

PiperMcLean351

blueberryoreo **(that sounds oddly delicious)**

sheeptopus **(I cannot get over how awesome your name is)**

Sinclair12

laura loom

softball4ever

PercabethAndZebrasFTW **(Let's make a fan club about that!)**

bookworm909

Apollosunchariot

Sailor Sea

mrpuppy

Yellow Submarine

Cerulean Apocalypse

PJAC416

PAFFElove

HarryPotterPJODoctorWho **(I am in love with your screen name)**

oneHPloverandonePJlover

kkawesome101

Chocolate123

chocolate bunny

annabethchaseseyes

Percyrox234

GothicPunk123 **(I've read your story and I love it! Keep writing!)**

Flame

Percabeth4ever

The Reader

trustingHim17 **(Birthday buddies!)**

PeaceLoveandCheese **(Thank you so much for taking time to read my story! I love yours, and it made me 'specially happy to see you review)**

Headintheclouds818

Hakuna-Matataa

Leanne

WisestOwl

PercyJacksonAddict

Anna575

jayebirdgirl

Festus104

death boy

thein123 **(I want to thank you for the suggestions! I'll put them into effect in the sequel.)**

AeronThana, **and**

omgiloveit

**And a bonus to **PercyplusAnnabeth, PercabethAndZebrasFTW, bookworm909, **and** kkawesome101 **for all of the many reviews that you've left. Virtual rainbows and cookies for you!**

**A shout out to **GothicPunk123** and their awesome story. They asked me to read it and I did, and I think it's fantastic. I'm following it, and I get excited for each new chapter.**

**Another thanks to **PeaceLoveandCheese**. Their take on Mark of Athena is wonderful (and still in progress!), and I'm in love. I asked them to read my story, and they gave me such kind feedback. Thank you!**

**Whew...I think that's it! I think as such a big thanks to you and making it through the Academy Award speech, I'll give you a reward. **

**The title to the sequel. **

**Oh, I'm so nice.**

**And now, for the title:**

**Drumroll, please.**

**.**

**.**

**.**

**.**

**.**

**The title is: Forgotten.**

**Why don't you think about that. The hint I gave you, Lethe. And the title, Forgotten. What could it mean?**

**The sequel is coming out soon! I'll need to put on a bit of restraint because I want to write it and post it right now, but I don't think I should post it so soon.**

**Remember, I'll post an alert on this story when Forgotten is released.**

**Until next time, my fantabulous readers and followers!**

**Thanks again!**

**-littlebitclever**


	30. FORGOTTEN IS RELEASED!

**Hello, everyone!**

**Well, my dear readers, I am pleased to announce that the sequel to Missing, Forgotten, is now online!**

**Please enjoy the prologue :)**

**Oh, and I have some unfinished business to attend to.**

**The people who got the trivia question (what is Hermes the god of besides thieves?) right! You thought I forgot about you, didn't you? Well, I didn't.**

**Here's to the recognition!**

**A wonderful "Congratulations, you got it right!" to:**

PercyplusAnnabeth, Aeron Thana, WisestOwl, Starkid Rocks **(and your explanation!), a Guest**,**and **PercabethAndZebrasFTW.

**Thanks, guys!**

**Oh, and can I ask just one teensy favor from you? Any of you apply.**

**I am SO close to getting 100 reviews. Actually, I'm one away from getting 100 reviews. I have 99. Can I please, please, please have 100? You guys are already the bomb, but I'd really like to crack the 3-digits. :) 'Specially since I'm nearly there.**

**Thank you guys **_**SO **_**much for everything, again! Ya'll are awesome.**

**Now, stop reading this and go read the sequel. Off with ya!**


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